The Killers - Sam's Town

The sound of The Killers’ new album holds all their familiar traits, but at the same time represents a move in a new direction. The guitars and keyboards still dominate and the vocals remain unchanged, yet this album sounds significantly different. I think the main difference lies in the tempo. They either seem rushed or stuck in two minds over what pace their aiming for. The result is an album that overwhelmingly feels off. Another thing that is immediately noticeable with this record is the divide between the first and second halves. The first half contains a number of upbeat, catchy songs, the ones you’ve likely heard on the radio already, while the second half is largely unimpressive. In fact for my first few listens I really couldn’t stand these later songs. However I must say that the more I listened to the album, the better (less bad) they got. I think what this familiarisation has shown is that they are not horrible songs, just ordinary. But the area in which they fail most is the slower songs. Listening back to their first album, you’ll find that the slower songs are well-crafted and quite moving, perhaps even the strong points of the album. Sadly the same cannot be said for this record. Where in the first you got simple melodies and great vocals, here they try too hard and you just get excessive instrumentation. Sure it contains a number of enjoyable and memorable songs, but as a complete package, Sam’s Town is a clear step backwards.

Sam’s Town – Originally I didn’t like this song mainly because of the bridge towards the end. But it’s pure energy won me over in the end. It’s quite an impressive opening and title track

Read My Mind – I thought I should pick a slower song for you to sample. This is probably as good as they get and as you may notice it’s not that great. At least here the sound is reasonably stripped back, as it should be in a slow song.

Previously – Smile Like You Mean It – This song was always a favourite off the first album. You only need to take a look at this and other songs of Hot Fuss to see where they went wrong. Simple and seductive does it every time.