Sam's Town — The Killers
Island
2006
Rating:


There are worse aspirations than wanting to be the next Bruce Springsteen — the past four years have been populated with bands that wanted to be nothing more than the next The Killers — but there are few ambitions that can so easily send a band into self-parody. As The Killers prove on "Sam's Town," singing about highways, deserts, skylines, rivers and Jesus does not Bruce Springsteen make.

"Sam's Town" is filled with such aphorisms, frequently in the same song: "When You Were Young" features the lyrics "He doesn't look a thing like Jesus" and "We're burning down a highway skyline on the back of a hurricane / That started turning / When you were young." Surprisingly, "When You Were Young" is one of the few times when The Killers get away with it. The song is genuinely emotional when Brandon Flowers sings, "And sometimes you close your eyes and see the place where you used to live," right before Dave Keuning launches into a stirring guitar solo. For once Flowers sounds like he actually means it and his earnestness is endearing.

"Read My Mind" likewise succeeds because of Flowers' ability to convey tenderness through restraint and the rest of The Killers work to make the chorus of "I don't mind if you don't mind / 'Cuz I don't shine when you don't shine" impossibly irresistible and actually moving. The unfortunately named "Bling (Confessions of a King)" works for the opposite reasons — channeling U2 more so than The Boss, the song is utter bombast.

Where "Sam's Town" most resoundingly fails at evoking "Born to Run" is in The Killers' inability to execute intimate character narratives or induce real images of Americana beyond the triteness of "Red, white and blue upon a birthday cake." In this, The Killers' influence more strongly resembles Bon Jovi, and one of those is more than enough.

Posted Thursday, December 21, 2006

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/music/the.killers/sams.town