Artist: Brandon Flowers

Title: Flamingo

Label: Island

Can a solo record be too solo? If so, Brandon Flowers - on hiatus from his job as frontman of The Killers - might have made just such an album with his debut, Flamingo. First things first, temper your expectations. Those looking for a Killers record, or Killers' leftovers, won't find it. That's a credit to Flowers' artistry, but also a sign he's in highly original territory with Flamingo's ten tracks. Flowers and co-producers Stuart Price, Daniel Lanois, and Brendan O'Brien attempt to wrangle Flamingo into line, but ultimately create a piece that feels incomplete, despite many enervating moments.

Flamingo charges out of the gate with album opener "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas," which hits familiar notes lyrically by comparing Vegas to a religion with its "neon-encrusted temples." The song is recklessly entertaining, an ironically-titled exploration of the consequences of decadence: "Give us your dreamers, your harlots, and your sin." It's a perfect match for this solo endeavor: just enough like a Killers tune to snag us, and just different enough to feel fresh. Here, as elsewhere, Flowers exhibits his signature flair for the dramatic, his vocals swooping and shrieking atop a bed of power chords before swerving into Billy Joel territory on the bridge.

Flowers has always been a vocal chameleon, able to twist his pipes around anything his bandmates can cook up. In this case, however, the result is an album of disparate pieces. On "Magdalena" and "Hard Enough," organic instrumentation like slide guitar and percussion form an earthy mix that takes Killers fans into new territory. Other tracks are so different, they might as well be from another decade. The first single, "Crossfire" offers the twinkling keyboards of an 80's power ballad that feels like Boston with Annie Lennox dropping by on the chorus.