Neil Tennant’s guest spot on Brandon Flowers’ album is a voicemail

Details of guest stars on Brandon Flowers’ forthcoming solo album, ‘The Desired Effect’ came out earlier this week, with Danielle Haim, Angel Deradoorian and bandmate Ronnie Vanucci all appearing on Ariel Rechtshaid-produced record, set for release on 18th May.

One name, however, stood out among the pack - Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant. And in an interview, the Killers frontman has spoken about his appearance on the Bronski Beat-sampling ‘I Can Change’ - and revealed it’s a simple answerphone message.

“I’m a big Pet Shop Boys fan, and Ariel’s a big Pet Shop Boys fan,” Flowers explained to Billboard. “We just talked about it, and we just had this gap in a verse and we needed to stick something in there. We were talking about it being a speaking part, and the greatest musical ‘speaker’ is Neil Tennant! His voice is like no other. I texted him if he would - he didn’t even hear the song or the tempo or anything, I just texted him this line. I asked, will you send us a voicemail of yourself saying, ‘When you’re looking for a change’? And that was it. He sent us a voice memo, and we stuck it onto the track, from the phone. It was done within 20 seconds.”

‘The Desired Effect’ is released on 18th May, Brandon tours the UK later the same month.

MAY
21 London Brixton Academy
24 Manchester Academy
25 Edinburgh Usher Hall
26 Leeds Academy
28 Birmingham Academy