The Desired Effect

Background

In 2010, Flowers released his first solo album Flamingo under the production work of Daniel Lanois, Stuart Price, and Brendan O'Brien. Flamingo, a homage to Flowers' hometown of Las Vegas, topped the UK Albums Chart and included a top ten single on the UK Singles Chart. Flowers toured internationally in support of the album, receiving rave reviews for his live performances. Flowers then put his solo career on hiatus while he pursued collaborations with The Killers including the UK number-one album Battle Born.

In February 2015, Flowers released a teaser video on his website as well as a hand written note stating, "May 18, 2015 We will finally achieve The Desired Effect. Ariel and I have been collaborating in the studio, working together in the spirit of conversation, contention, and at long last, Sweet contrition. No one has yet seen or heard the change. But soon, we all will."

Recording

The Desired Effect was recorded primarily at The Killers' studio, Battle Born Studios in Winchester, Nevada. The album was produced by Ariel Rechtshaid (Vampire Weekend, HAIM) and mixed by Alan Moulder (Smashing Pumpkins, The Killers, Arctic Monkeys).

The album features notable musicians including Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys), Bruce Hornsby, Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel), Carlos Alomar (David Bowie), Joey Waronker (Beck), Kenny Aronoff (John Mellencamp), Ronnie Vannucci, Jr. (The Killers), Angel Deradoorian (Dirty Projectors), and Danielle Haim (Haim).

Promotion

"Can't Deny My Love" was released as the lead single on March 23, 2015. It also served as an instant download for pre-orders of the album. Flowers released a series of promotional video clips announcing the single. Flowers also released a series of promotional video clips announcing second single "Still Want You". He released the music video exclusively on Vessel.com A lyric video was released for "I Can Change".

In March 2015 Flowers announced a European leg of The Desired Effect Tour in promotion of the album. The leg began in Dublin, Ireland on May 19, and moved onto the UK starting in London on May 21. On tour Flowers has been joined by guests on stage including Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) and Bernard Sumner (New Order). In April 2015 Flowers announced a North American solo tour. The tour is set to run from July 27 through October 1. He performed at the Austin City Limits Music Festival and at Life Is Beautiful.

Flowers appears on the cover of NME (May 9, 2015), Illinois Entertainer (May 2015), Variance (June 2015, Iss. 20), and Luxury Las Vegas (July 2015).

Critical reception

The Desired Effect received critical acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 75, based on 25 reviews. Matt Yates of Q wrote, "Big, bold and joyful, it's exactly what a great pop album should be." Neil McCormick of The Sunday Telegraph called it a "set of perfectly honed pop-rock burnished with immense choruses" and wrote that, "every track offers up a smart blend of snappy lyrics and catchy hooks." Mark Beaumont for NME wrote, "The Desired Effect is a consistently impressive collection." Sarah Jamieson of DIY wrote "Brandon is still very much the star of this show... he's always been at his most comfortable creating huge pop songs and with his last solo effort, he proved to do just that."

In a five star review, Adrian Thrills of Daily Mail wrote that, "In tandem with his day job fronting The Killers, Flowers has a serious solo career." Andy Gill of The Independent called it "a series of huge-sounding, stadium-ready pop anthems of undeniable charm." Lewis Corner of Digital Spy called it, "an astute and vivid record." Music blog Press Play gave the album a 4/5 rating and expressed surprise at the quality of the record stating that it is Flowers best album since Hot Fuss. Sarah Rodman of The Boston Globe wrote, "The other predicted effect of the album? A desire to play it repeatedly." Darryl Sterdan of The Observer wrote, "Worth your time." Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone wrote, "The Desired Effect is something rare — the best straight-up pop album made by a rock star in recent memory."

At year's end the album appeared on several Best of 2015 lists including as the Album of the Year in The Sun and The San Francisco Examiner. It also appeared on year-end lists by the Los Angeles Times, SPIN, DIY, Gigwise, Idolator, and Mashable. The album's lyrics won the 2015 AML Award in that category.

Commercial performance

The Desired Effect debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with first week sales of 31,077 copies, making it Flowers' second solo number one album and sixth overall, including work by the Killers. In the United States, the album sold the seventh most copies its debut week, but due to the inclusion of streaming data, it charted at number 17. At the mid-year mark, the album was the 38th best-selling album of the year in the UK.

Single "I Can Change" charted on the UK Singles and Irish Singles charts. Singles "Can't Deny My Love" and "Lonely Town" charted on the US Hot Rock Songs chart. The album has been certified Silver by the BPI in July 2015.

Track listing

Personnel