Brandon Flowers has some target practice

Two words usually without fail send a shiver down our spine here at thepopweb.

Solo. Career.

Oh we can understand the temptation. Boy/Girl creates band. Boy/Girl quickly realises that they're the only one in band that anyone even remotely cares about. Boy/girl thinks "wait, I don't need these guys divvying up my paycheck. I can make it on my own!" Boy/girl throws some bollocks together in a studio. Boy/girl realises far too late that whilst no-one else quite realised it at the time, the rest of the band actually gave their music the x-factor which made it likeable and commercially viable in the first place. Boy/girl hobbles back home and can only sit and watch whilst said solo career tanks bringing down with it the shattered remains of their ego and talent.

In short, we're looking at you Sharleen Spiteri.

But fear not, ladies and gentlemen, all is not lost for the Holy Grail quest known as the solo career. Brandon Flowers (i.e. "him from the Killers") has taken a stab at the whole thing and has, to his credit, produced something extremely listenable. Crossfire is the first single to be released from his upcoming partly Stuart Price produced album Flamingo which is due out in September. Behold the video below. It features an ass-kicking Charlize Theron and Brandon demonstrating why he's the world's worst action hero given that Charlize appears to have to rescue him three separate times from some particularly blood-thirsty ninjas.

Yes, the song itself sounds like it could have slotted in nicely anywhere in the Sam's Town album (on an aside we're totally going to produce a paper one day on Mormon mythological influences on that album and the personification of mountains in Brandon Flowers' lyrics but that's probably "by the by") but given that Sam's Town was an  absolutely stunning album once you listened to it three times through, that's definitely no bad thing. At least Brandon has stuck to what he's good at rather than going "I know, I totally need to do an album inspired by the music of the 60s because that's what all the cool kids are doing and it will thus totally kickstart my solo career."

In short, we're looking at you Sharleen Spiteri.

No, Crossfire plays it safe and is a tender and emotional love song which sees Brandon grappling with themes of "heaven and hell" whilst trying to get his paramore to sleep with him. It's amazing how in pop music decisions like these suddenly take on a cosmic significance rather than "oh bugger, I should probably just get an early night because I've got a presentation early in the morning etc."

The guitar outro of the track is absolutely bloody brilliant to the point that we imagine that Brandon is extracting genuine tears from it as he and Charlize drive off into the sunset. But, as you might expect, it's Brandon's vocals which really set this apart. His falsetto "Lay your body down" hook is delivered beautifully and the whole thing is given the electricity by the modulating and emotional vocal tone that Brandon does so well.

If this is even a taste of what's to come from Flamingo then we fully expect that this body of material will stand up very well alongside the rest of The Killers' output and may well buck the usual "solo career" trend. Time will tell, of course, but this is an extremely promising first offering and has certainly piqued our interest in seeing what Brandon can deliver on his own.

Which is more than can be said for the whole Sharleen Spiteri fiasco.