The Killers
Sam’s Town

Rating: 1.5/5
Tracks to download: “Sam’s Town,” “Bling (Confessions of a King)”
For fans of: The Bravery

The first time I heard The Killers, I was sitting on my couch at home in Phoenix, Ariz. watching a Muse video on Fuse. “Somebody Told Me” was the song that followed. While undoubtedly a dumb concept for a song, it popped. It had an undeniable appeal that made it impossible to get it out of my head. Their biggest single, “Mr. Brightside,” is also driven by fast, upbeat tempos that make it a fun song to listen to despite its downer subject matter.

Despite “Hot Fuss” thematically not being the most uplifting of records, it was more fun than depressing, and while I can pledge with 100 percent of my being that I love depressing music, it is not what the Killers do best. “Hot Fuss” succeeded as an album because it was more dance-y than bitchy, more up-tempo than lyrically depressing.

“Sam’s Town” reverses this and the result is an album of annoyingly corny power ballads overshadowing some of the elements that made “Hot Fuss” such a success. The album actually starts out on a highlight. The title track, “Sam’s Town,” despite its terrible synth line, is a great example of how The Killers could have approached the entire album. While it’s definitely an arena rock song (thanks in particular to the multiple voices singing at the end), it still kicks with much of the same excitement that pumps through “Somebody Told Me.”

The next track on the album is the “Enterlude,” a 49-second intro that can only be described as worthless (note: there is an “Exitlude” – also worthless). The third track on the album is the first single, “When You Were Young,” a decent choice for the first single as it in some ways is the inverse of “Mr. Brightside.” Instead of our subject being a man torn apart by jealousy, this time we have a woman having the “beautiful boy” of her dreams who “doesn’t look a thing like Jesus” save her from her “old ways.” While the ambiguity of what these “old ways” are is astounding, I am far more perplexed by why the hell it matters that he doesn’t look like Jesus. While I understand The Killers are attempting to become their own brand of arena rockers, nonsensical allusions to Jesus aren’t a prerequisite.

Things mostly get worse from here. Featuring a terrible guitar riff, corny lyrics and an appalling second vocal part at the end of the song, “Uncle Jonny” is a character analysis of a cocaine user. “For Reasons Unknown” can be noted best for having the lamest chorus of any on the album, i.e., “My heart / it don’t beat / it don’t beat the way it used to.” Finally, “My List” is soft, slow and dull for the first half of the song, while being louder, slow and dull for the second half of the song.

“Sam’s Town” is unfortunately a shift to the worst The Killers have to offer mixed with the worst many arena rockers have to offer. Hopefully next time they’ll stick to the tried-and-true of their first album and make less nonsensical references to Christ.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 25th, 2006 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Cadenza. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.