Life at Club Med in the Whitsundays has been a hectic combination of dodging torrential rain (November had five times the average rainfall and well over double the record for this part of Queensland), playing tennis, killing cockroaches, kayaking to tiny islands, dealing with tropical mold, doing the sound for the nightly shows, shooing wild turkeys out of the restaurant, eating too much at the buffet and DJ-ing at the nightclub.

Amidst all that I’ve found time to listen to Killers’ frontman Brandon Flowers’ debut solo album Flamingo and this song Only The Young is one of those melancholy minor-epics I always find myself drawn to.

With lyrics awash in Biblical imagery, Vangelis like production, a beautiful slide guitar weaving in and out of the keyboard hook and even a nod to the Bee Gees on the “ah ha ha” falsetto vocal, Only The Young is arguably the most ambitious song Flowers has written since All These Things I’ve Done. Flowers has always been a fan of early 80s production sounds and the song is a more sombre musical cousin of Vangelis’ State Of Independence, best known by Donna Summer’s 1983 remake.

Only The Young is the Roxborogh Report’s song of the week and here is the official video. Enjoy!