Brandon Flowers is quite a shape-shifter. On his band’s debut, he was a strobe-lit, synth-pop drama queen; second time out he became a would-be guitar-rock messiah, complete with bolo tie and facial-scruff gravitas. Now, on this collection of 17 cutouts, he appears as a shadow-draped brooder, keening over the noisiest, grimmest music his band has ever made. It’s his least exciting role yet, although not without charms. Here he is anguishing about “Bushes and bombs” with Lou Reed (“Tranquilize”); here he is doing his best Ian Curtis (the spry Joy Division cover “Shadowplay”); a big fat sing-along springs up on “Under the Gun”—only it goes “Kill me now kill me now kill me now!” It’s easy to see why these songs didn’t fit on their record but, while a full listen turns unrelentingly dour, they’re better than discards have any right to be.

Download “Move Away,” “Under the Gun”