Brandon Flowers - Flamingo

It's often been said that Bono, U2's diminutive frontman, has something of a God complex. If that's true, then lesser rock stars like Brandon Flowers, erstwhile singer with The Killers, must make do with debilitating Bono complexes. Flowers' long-nursed complex - his burning, unashamed, desperate desire to be a big, important rock statesman singing songs about big, important human truths - reaches its apex on his first solo effort, the stupidly named Flamingo. Stupid because this man is already handing out enough ammunition with which to shoot him; he really doesn't need to go painting a great big bulls-eye on his butt.

Flower's strident need to prove himself begins immediately, with 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas', which starts off pompous and anthemic and then does nothing but get louder and more bombastic for the next five minutes. It also includes the lyric "You're looking for the grace of God/ in the arms of a stranger". Ask yourself: how much more Bono could that lyric get? The answer, my friend, in none. None more Bono.

Next up is 'Only the Young', which once again is slow and stately, Flowers voice quivering with all the utterly contrived emotion he's summoning. And so it goes. Flamingo's default mode, one it slips into far too frequently, is dreary, treacly drive-time rock smothered in 80s slick production. Over the course of the album, Flowers wheels out every melodramatic cliché going. "Mother, it's cold here," he warbles on 'Only the Young'. "Is there anybody out there," he wavers on 'Jilted Lovers & Broken Hearts', on which he also informs us that "the city ain't so kind tonight." Which just reminds you that this man also has a budding Springsteen complex to contend with.

It goes without saying that this album of relentless big moments is as empty and hollow as they come. Whether Flowers understands it or not, he has chosen a most apt name for his solo album. Flamingo is showy and brightly coloured, flapping around and making a lot of noise in case we stop paying it attention just for a second. Judging by how conceited and self-absorbed Flowers comes off as being on this album, it's probably something he has considered. However, he's been to kind to himself with this ironic, self-revealing tactic. The correct title for this album would be Peacock, with all the connotations that name throws up.