Now, we can watch the live stream and tell ourselves that, really, Vegas is a capitalist hellscape not worth the 14-hour flight for three days of jetlag-muddied exhaustion… But a comparative look at the weather forecast or stumbling over friends’ Instagram posts might have the potential for leaving us a bit uneasy – FOMO, I hear the kids are calling it.
But worry not, Music is here to swoop in and lift us right back up – give us a taste of casino floor madness without actually having to turn our wallets inside out!
Brandon Flowers might not be a name that immediately recognizes, but when I drop the name The Killers, I am guessing it might start to give you an idea. As a solo artist, he has released two albums to date, with a third being speculated to be on the way.
Granted, the lyrics on “Flamingo” (2010) can veer into the caricaturesque, with its central losers being “caught in the crossfire between heaven and hell”. But, especially from a European point of view (one might argue), this can also be seen as an astute reading of the front-and-center pomp of a city that literally expands around replicas of New York’s skyline, the Eiffeltower and the canals of Venice, to name a few.
Don’t read too much into it, just go along for the fun ride that it is – that goes for Vegas, as well as the album. Plus, clocking in under an hour, “Flamingo” is far easier to dip in and out of than Sin City!
Coryphe 