Do not misinterpret Brandon Flowers's solo album as malcontent of any kind. He's said the material on it would have been for the band he usually fronts, the Killers, had the rest of the group not decided to take the year off. So if it sounds like his previous work — and a lot of it does — that's why, though losing his usual surroundings did grant Flowers some flexibility. The Springsteen influence has always been there, but now he can drag out a few syllables and wail through some bridges in a way that he didn't while contending with the more restrained influence of Killers co-founder Dave Keuning. Similarly, there's more instrumental variation in the solo work: more keyboard, less guitar, an organ here or there.