Familiar sound from The Killers
The Killers - Sam's Town
Remember when you heard of The Killers? 2004's Hot Fuss was a slow burn of new wave-influenced pop rock that broke North America's mainstream resistance to keyboards and synthesizers. For that The Killers deserve some credit. And hey, the singles were pretty catchy.
Well, until “All These Things That I've Done” was played to death while selling most of the four million copies of the album.
Sam's Town is basically The Killers doing their absolute best to record as many new versions of that song as they possibly can.
Do you like ballads? Singer Brandon Flowers is counting on it. The first single from the album, “When You Were Young”, sounds like Hot Fuss's more grandiose songs on steroids. Most of the rest of the album is based around the same feel, so it's really quite a shame that “When You Were Young” is the only track that perfects their formula rather than merely rehashes it. The few times they do move away from it (“Uncle Johnny,” “Bones”), it ends up coming across as pale shades of their Hot Fuss counterparts — “On Top” and “Mr. Brightside” respectively.
Although the melodies prove rather predictable, Flowers' voice shows a lot of improvement. His signature warble veers way off key — quite intentionally, of course — which works very well with the spacey wall-of-noise feel of the production.
The lyrics could've been the swaying factor for Sam's Town. Sadly, while Flowers brings interesting ideas to almost every song, the execution falls flat.
For every “We're burning down the highway skyline/ on the back of a hurricane that started turning when you/ were young” we're treated to a lyrical abortion like “He doesn't look a thing like Jesus.”
If the Killers are going to follow the Bruce Springsteen road and narrow their focus down to a very specific sound, as this album seems to be indicating, Flowers has got to put more effort into cohesive song writing. He's proven that he has the potential, so let's see the poetic magic that these tired dramatic crescendos keep promising us.
Remember when you heard of The Killers? 2004's Hot Fuss was a slow burn of new wave-influenced pop rock that broke North America's mainstream resistance to keyboards and synthesizers. For that The Killers deserve some credit. And hey, the singles were pretty catchy.
Well, until “All These Things That I've Done” was played to death while selling most of the four million copies of the album.
Sam's Town is basically The Killers doing their absolute best to record as many new versions of that song as they possibly can.
Do you like ballads? Singer Brandon Flowers is counting on it. The first single from the album, “When You Were Young”, sounds like Hot Fuss's more grandiose songs on steroids. Most of the rest of the album is based around the same feel, so it's really quite a shame that “When You Were Young” is the only track that perfects their formula rather than merely rehashes it. The few times they do move away from it (“Uncle Johnny,” “Bones”), it ends up coming across as pale shades of their Hot Fuss counterparts — “On Top” and “Mr. Brightside” respectively.
Although the melodies prove rather predictable, Flowers' voice shows a lot of improvement. His signature warble veers way off key — quite intentionally, of course — which works very well with the spacey wall-of-noise feel of the production.
The lyrics could've been the swaying factor for Sam's Town. Sadly, while Flowers brings interesting ideas to almost every song, the execution falls flat.
For every “We're burning down the highway skyline/ on the back of a hurricane that started turning when you/ were young” we're treated to a lyrical abortion like “He doesn't look a thing like Jesus.”
If the Killers are going to follow the Bruce Springsteen road and narrow their focus down to a very specific sound, as this album seems to be indicating, Flowers has got to put more effort into cohesive song writing. He's proven that he has the potential, so let's see the poetic magic that these tired dramatic crescendos keep promising us.
