CDs of the week: Brandon Flowers is a Killer on the run

It's a nice tale, redolent of vim and derring-do. Unfortunately, Flamingo does not quite live up to its promising billing. My personal warning bells starting tolling when it was revealed that his
co-conspirators were producers Stuart Price, Daniel Lanois and Brendan O'Brien, who also add musicianship. My view is that if you're in a decent band, stay with them, because gnarled old producers aren't the same deal.

The problems begin at the beginning. Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas solemnly informs us that Las Vegas is not the most fabulous place in the world. You don't have to be born there to know this. It took me five minutes to work it out and after two days, suicidal feelings set in.

Brandon Flowers is, unfortunately, a serious young man with a penchant for the clunkingly obvious. On the louder parts of this record, he sounds like Meat Loaf without a sense of the ridiculous; for the remainder he comes on like a secular preacher with a serious message for conflicted rock stars but not much to say to the rest of us.

Flamingo has its moments. Swallow It is a pretty little song and Crossfire bounces along on a jaunty bass-line, but, in short, this selection of tunes lacks that Killer touch.
PETE CLARK

Hurts
Happiness (Sony/RCA/Major Label)
****
Their frankly silly name alone suggests that the Manchester duo understand there's only room for one set of Chuckle Brothers in this lifetime. Instead, like a Pet Shop Boys wearing hob-nailed boots, they're a big-sound, big-ideas, big-screen synthpop pair. The surprise is that for all its Eighties touchstones —especially the chest-beating of Blood, Tears and Gold and the A-ha-isms of Unspoken — their debut album has a surprisingly timeless ring. Those seeking the big music often make fools of themselves along the way but there's always a gap for sincerity. Hurts sound believable, and they sound like they're going to sell a lot of records.
JOHN AIZLEWOOD

Brian Wilson
Reimagines Gershwin (Walt Disney)
**
Ex-beach Boy Brian Wilson maintains that George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue is "the greatest piece of music ever written". Now this great composer of a different era has the chance, at the behest of the Gershwin estate, to put his stamp on 12 more classics. Sadly, it's a better idea on paper. Wilson's once angelic voice is more overbearing today, and though I Loves You Porgy retains some emotional subtlety, the rock 'n'roll makeovers given to I Got Rhythm and They Can't Take That Away From Me sound ham-fisted. Equally, two "new" songs, The Like in I Love You and Nothing But Love, composed from unfinished Gershwin material, are nowhere near as momentous a meeting of minds as they might have been.
DAVID SMYTH

Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs
God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise
(Columbia)
***
The bearded balladeer is joined here by the Pariah Dogs, a pack of top-notch session musicians. Convening at LaMontagne's house in the woods of western Massachusetts, they recorded its
10 tracks in just two weeks, which gives the album a loose, live feel. The funky opener Repo Man puts the singer's gravelly voice through its paces. Elsewhere, there is the woe-is-me balladry of Are We Really Through?, though the clouds part briefly for the Dylanesque Old Before Your Time. There's too much filler but this much soul deserves to be more than the soundtrack of dinner parties.
RICK PEARSON

JAZZ
George Duke
Déjà Vu (Heads Up)
****
A heavyweight improviser yet funky enough for any dance-club crowd, George Duke touches hearts, minds and feet wherever he performs. The latest studio offering by this crowd-pleasing Californian keyboarder gives his soulful originals (Bring Me Joy, Oh Really?) a typically warm ambience. Hallmarks of a George Duke production include strong players (trumpeter Nicholas Payton, tenorist Bob Sheppard, guitarist Jef Lee Johnson, drummer Ronald Bruner), a dream rhythm section, tasteful touches of Hammond organ, muted brass and, of course, the sexiest new synth voicings. Recommended to listeners hoping to keep that summer-holiday feeling alive a few weeks longer.
JACK MASSARIK

WORLD
Le Trio Joubran
Majaz
(World Village)
****
Le Trio Joubran are three brothers from an oud-playing family from Nazareth in Palestine that goes back four generations. All three of them — Samir, Wissam and Adnan Joubran —are superb players and in joining together in a trio they are already doing something new. There's a stately majesty about many of the pieces on Majaz (Metaphor) and they take time to build and develop. But there's a sense of space and drama about the music, and the up-tempo Laytana shows the overlaps between Arabic music and flamenco, helped by restrained percussion from Yousef Hbeisch. They play the Union Chapel, Islington, on September 19, and their live performances are usually even more fiery.
SIMON BROUGHTON