Showing posts with label brandon flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brandon flowers. Show all posts

The Killers - Live From The Royal Albert Hall (DVD & CD) Review

The Killers - Live From The Royal Albert Hall (DVD and CD)
Average Reviews:

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The Killers - Live From Royal Albert Hall is an excellent concert video, revealing The Killers as brilliant musicians, both individually and in ensemble. Ronnie Vannucci's drums beat at the center of this astounding group like the steady heart of a seasoned jazz musician: always alive, always responsive to the band, always in perfectly chosen tempo. Dave Keuning, on guitars, is lightyears beyond the generalized strumming of most rock chord-players, speaking to us articulately and beautifully with his nimble fingers. On Bass, Mark Stoermer is powerful and elegant, never missing a step, or beat, and is vigilantly alert to his fellow musicians, always nuanced.
The group inspires total confidence, which is in no small part due to the astonishing talent of Brandon Flowers, a singer whose grasp of vocal possibility, both technically and creatively, is far beyond his years. His pastiche of power, nuance, simplicity, refinement, flawless technique, and elegance place him solidly in the pantheon of great singers. Did I mention power? At 28, he has a command of his instrument, and an insight into it's mysteries, that most advanced artists do not begin to approach before they are in their 40's. And like all the greatest musicians, he is always listening: watch him listen to the band, to his audience. Simply put, he is a phenomenon: delivering unbroken passion in perfect balance with his skill. Never missing a note or moment of connection, his attention is always with his audience, with giving them the best, and ALL of it. And they are ready and willing to take him up on his offer.
The concert DVD / Blu-ray is first rate, mostly due to The Killers all-around brilliant talent as performers and composers, Flowers' lyrics always interesting, always impressionistic and captivating. The audience of fans delivers what has come to be expected by Killers followers: total enthrall and open-hearted excitment. Killers fans are always smiling. And as this concert proves, so are The Killers. Seldom, if ever, have I seen a band (or solo performer) project such open-hearted enjoyment, pure joy, at making music. Flowers and Vannucci never stop smiling, and neither do we. This DVD is simply brilliant.

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Now The Killers know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall. On July 5-6th, during their 8-country European festival tour, the multi-platinum VMA Award-winning, Grammy-nominated band performed two historic nights at the legendary Kensington venue. LIVE FROM THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL, The Killers' first official DVD release, is a spectacular 22-song live concert experience - filmed in HD (with 'Fan's Eye View' alternative camera angle) and full 5.1 sound. The package, with live performances on the DVD plus a 17-song live CD from the shows (unavailable elsewhere), will be released November 10th on Island Records. Killers fans will appreciate how faithful the DVD is to the band's sight and sound onstage. Moreover, the songs cut across all four of the Killers' album releases, from their debut Hot Fuss ("Somebody Told Me," "Smile Like You Mean It," "Mr. Brightside," "All These Things That I've Done," "Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine"); to Sam's Town ("For Reasons Unknown," "Bling (Confessions Of A King)," "Sam's Town (acoustic)," "Read My Mind," "The River Is Wild," "When You Were Young"); to Sawdust ("Shadowplay," "Sweet Talk"); and Day & Age ("Human," "This Is Your Life," "The World We Live In," "Joy Ride," "I Can't Stay," "Losing Touch," "Spaceman").
The DVD, who's running time is over 2 hours, is packed with bonus extras - starting with an additional five songs from the festival tour: "Tranquilize" (live at the Oxegen Festival in Ireland, July 12th); "Human" and "Mr. Brightside" (from Hyde Park in London on June 26th); and "Smile Like You Mean It" and "When We Were Young" (from the V Festival in August). A behind-the-scenes documentary, including interviews with crew and fans, rounds out the bonus content on the DVD. The 78-minute live CD was mastered by British producer Stuart Price.

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Flamingo Review

Flamingo
Average Reviews:

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What is it with the negative mentality from fans when a lead singer goes solo? I am glad I grew up during a different era when it was just fine for a lead singer to go solo with fans. For example, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, David Lee Roth, Peter Cetera, Jon Anderson, etc., etc. Nowadays it seems there's this negative element involved for no really good reason.
Brandon Flowers of The Killers releases his first solo album and it's, "This isn't what I expected" or "This is another Killers album" or "The fans who give this positive reviews are deluded", etc., etc. The fact of the matter is The Killers are popular right now, "Flamingo" entered the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart in the top ten, the first single "Crossfire" has done well on the charts.
Also, Flowers brings in the heavy artillery with three great producers: Stuart Price (New Order, Madonna, Scissor Sisters, Pet Shop Boys, Gwen Stefani, Seal and Keane), Daniel Lanois (U2, Peter Gabriel and Robbie Robertson) and Brendan O'Brien (Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine, Korn, The Offspring, Train, Bruce Springsteen, Incubus, The Music, The Wallflowers, Audioslave, The Bravery, Velvet Revolver and AC/DC). This has ensured a quality product. Plus a duet with Riley Kilo's lead singer Jenny Lewis on "Hard Enough".
I listened to all three Killers albums in sequential order prior to listening to "Flamingo", and I have to say I liked "Flamingo" slightly more than The Killers albums. This is the first album where I felt there was a musical unity throughout. I did not feel, upon repeated listening, that there were any weak tracks here. Some are better than others, but overall the album sounded good, not great. Flowers (and The Killers) still have the potential to develop into a classic rock band, but they have yet to hit their stride.
Growing up in the 1980's, this album reminded me of many other artists/bands from that era with a modern polish, and The Killers are, after all, a retro band, a post-new wave revival band. Flowers' influences are also from that era, and they are evident here.
"Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas" is a great, grand, sweeping opener. "Only The Young", the album's second single, is a beautifully sung, electronic ballad. "Hard Enough" has a country tinge with a carefully placed hook in the chorus. "Jilted Lovers & Broken Hearts" is the most Killers sounding track and one of the fastest paced tracks here. "Playing With Fire" might be the weakest track here, but it redeems itself in its melody line during the second half of the song. "Was It Something I Said?" has a good melody. "Magdalena" is pure vocal hook magic. "Crossfire" is likewise catchy and melodic. "On The Floor" and "Swallow It" finish off the original 10 track album with more hooks. The four bonus tracks are equally as good with "The Clock Was Tickin'" and "Jacksonville" being very catchy.
Overall, "Flamingo" deserves four stars for its great production and hooks galore. Anyone can quibble over the lyrical content here, and many have complained about the religious content, but I inspected the lyrics online and did not feel Flowers was being overly preachy. I mean give me a break here. There are so many other artists that are absolutely preachy in their convictions, and who cares? That's what's great about popular music--passion, conviction, opinions, points of view, attitudes. People are so easily perturbed by the smallest things.
Here's how "Flamingo" compares to The Killers:
2004 Hot Fuss: Four Stars
2006 Sam's Town: Three and a Half Stars
2008 Day & Age: Three and a Half Stars
2010 Flamingo: Four Stars (from a biased, non-zealous fan)

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Inextricably tied to Vegas in both showmanship and ideology, Flamingo is a bombastic 10-track collection of stadium-ready songs that runs the gamut from expert pop executions and forlorn electro dirges to gospel tunes and even blues-tinged rock (read: pedal steel, and plenty of it).

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