Brandon Flowers - Flamingo

Debut solo album Flamingo (September 14, Island) from The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers is, as it probably should be, an elegant exercise in dueling dichotomies. The indie bard vs. the arena prog-pragmatist. The taut, wiry and nimble pop melodies vs. the bombast of big-themed, air-pumping anthems. Much like his home town of Las Vegas, the satin penthouse glam vs. the grit and mayhem of the street. As a dying breed of charismatic stage focal points, performers who actually know how to perform, play to and with an audience, Flowers oozes a retro-rockstar ambition -- Bowie, Bono, Ferry, Springsteen at his most Born to Run drama -- with feigned nonchalance coupled with an in-your-face defiance. It is, after all, a show.

The eagerly anticipated Flamingo, named for a Vegas road along the last garish bastions of stained decadence, promises garish neon and giddy abandon. We practically demand something daring, something to hit us...and hard. We get pedal steel and galloping rock riffs. Massive "look at me" melodies and nuanced twists. We get the single-spot intensity of the emotional "Magdalena". The rowdy, elbowing rocker "Jilted Lovers and Broken Hearts". The preening, campy Ziggy Stardust-ian "Swallow It."  And then there's "Crossfire", candidate for the finest rock song of the year, a track that manages to summon teary, spine chilling nostalgia with a exhilarating hope for the future of big music played on a big stage. Perhaps not at celeb appeal radio, where blipped booty beats and crass playground sing-a-longs rule, but somewhere. Just maybe.

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Brandon Flowers - "Crossfire" (from the album Flamingo)

Brandon Flowers - "Swallow It" (from the album Flamingo)