REVIEW #1: 30/100

​

Ok, I started this with a plan to listen to each song, take notes on them and then compile an overall review of the entire project. A couple of songs in, I noticed a pattern developing – one that made reviewing the album a little more complicated.

 

The American Dream is composed of mostly Declan McKenna and DIIV instrumentals. While I was unfamiliar with DIIV, I am pretty familiar with Declan McKenna and even have a few of his songs in frequent rotation. This is why a few songs in to the album, I felt like I was having a bit of deja-vu. When you know the song and the original lyrics well enough, it’s hard not to pick up on a lot of the similarities in the new Brandon Flowers interpretations. And I say interpretations because that’s how many of the songs come across.

 

Often lines are pulled from the original, words switched out or flipped around to fit the overall theme of The American Dream and boom, there’s your track. Some of us may have differing opinions on this approach – I’ll admit I’ve had instances where I’ve been so inspired or captivated by a certain lyric or melody or moment from an existing song that I’ve reinterpreted it, but I feel as though this was done with too heavy a hand on this album. It makes it difficult to hear this album as a completely original piece of work and more a ‘Declan McKenna/DIIV Mad Libs’ at times. Or like you know those magnets that are all different words and you can rearrange them to make sentences on your fridge? This album feels like someone made a Declan McKenna/DIIV edition of those word magnets and asked somebody to make an album out of them… about America.

 

With that being said, there are songs on the album that stand out in terms of originality. ‘Suffocate’, while still borrowing some elements of the DIIV track it gets it’s instrumental, is unique enough to stand on its own and what we have is quite an intriguing track with some heavy poetic lyricism. There are more instances on the album like this where the song writing breaks free of its source material and starts to become more interesting and draws you in, but the second you recognise another recycled lyric, it tends to takes you right back out.

 

As for the overall theme itself – it’s a big one. Flowers tackles the massively broad topic of America, with opinions that will supposedly piss some people off but nothing really stands out as an overly hot take. Vague criticisms and jabs that feel like Flowers is dipping his rich, white toe in to anarchism and libertarianism, but not willing to put his head under the water. And this may seem a bit much for a review of a CAL album, but I argue it comes with taking on such a complex subject. There’re pieces here and there and some moments that intrigue and even impress, but the unwillingness to delve deeper and really allow the concept to develop itself (free of any influence from existing songs) lets the album down and instead it comes off as somebody preaching the teachings of a book they haven’t fully read.

 

Overall, it seems as though there wasn’t enough inspiration/motivation to really deliver on the concept of this album. When real life songs like ‘Skin Game’ and ‘Daniel, You’re Still A Child’ turn in to ‘Wicked Game’ and ‘Son, You’re Still A Child’ it’s hard not to think that maybe the instrumentals and source material were the focus here, with the lyrics/themes shoehorned in without the necessary creativity and effort to make them work as unique Brandon Flowers songs.

 

Disclaimer: Obviously, a lot of us need to source our instrumentals from existing songs/artists and that is just how CAL works. Sometimes all of the instrumentals are sourced from the same artist, sometime even the same album. Some of us may have differing opinions on this approach, but the fact remains, for a lot of us who can’t create our own instrumentals, they have to come from somewhere and it’s up to the creative process/artistic vision of the person making the album where they come from and how they’re used. With that being said, I personally believe a certain amount of originality is required in order to fully separate existing IRL songs and CAL songs.