By: Ashley Day

All photos courtesy of Amazon.com

Brandon Flowers – “Flamingo” – Island

It has been two weeks since Brandon Flowers’s solo record, “Flamingo,” has hit stores. The front man of Las Vegas band, The Killers, has not let the band’s hiatus stop him from creating music. Flowers revealed fearing that if he stopped playing music for a year, it might “mess him up.” On first listen, this record seems like a mash up of ten songs thrown onto an album. By the second or third spin through “Flamingo,” the songs become infectious melodies that stick in your head. “Crossfire” is the first single off the record and sounds much like The Killers. The rest of the disk pays homage to Flowers’s home town of Las Vegas. The record is a blend of alternative, country, jazz and pop.

Jimmy Eat World – “Invented” – David Geffen Company

It has been three years since Jimmy Eat World’s smash album, “Chase This Light,” dropped. The band has bounced between record labels for many years, but for “Invented,” Jimmy Eat World seceded from former major label Interscope Records to create the fresh, emotional rock Jimmy Eat World is known for. The band teamed up with producer Mark Trombino, who has produced three other Jimmy Eat World records, including the infamous “Bleed American.” Long time fans will be ecstatic to know Jimmy Eat World has taken “Invented” back to their glory days, recycling the mellow guitar riffs that made “Clarity” a love-at-first-listen album in 1999 and chant-friendly high school anthems of “Bleed American.” Their first single, “My Best Theory,” is already number twelve on the Billboard rock charts.