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But even if the music doesn't really work, it's hard not to listen to it in slack-jawed wonderment, since there's never been a record quite like it -- it's nothing but wrong-headed dreams, it's all pomp but no glamour, it's clichés sung as if they were myths.
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Not fully realizing where their strengths and weaknesses lie makes Sam's Town, despite the drastic makeover, roughly equivalent to Hot Fuss, a mediocre album surrounding a few towering singles.
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Sam’s Town is so riddled with hackneyed clichés, pandering melodrama, and lazy songwriting, that we keep wondering just what gimmick Flowers will thrust upon us next in a desperate effort to hold our attention.
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UncutThe problem... is that size seems to be used as an excuse for the lack of musical ideas. [Nov 2006, p.102]
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MojoAn action-packed blockbuster. [Oct 2006, p.104]
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Q MagazineA much better record than its predecessor. [Oct 2006, p.112]
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The Killers are still as flashy, unintentionally funny, and flagrantly affected as ever.
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On Sam's Town they seem like they're trying to make a big statement, except they have nothing to say.
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With too much empty bluster and not enough decent songs, Sam's Town can only be regarded as a step back for The Killers.
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The album doesn't lend Flowers the gravitas he apparently yearns for, but it does prove that few are better at irrepressible pop hooks and fist-pumping choruses.
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Taken as a body of work it is certainly more consistent than Hot Fuss.
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Those who don't enter Sam's Town with inflated expectations will find it's a pretty fun place to spend some time.
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SpinSam's Town is basically Hot Fuss with bigger, spanglier guitars and an all-round lack of restraint. [Oct 2006, p.93]
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With Sam's Town, they've removed the glopped-on Goth eyeliner, sprouted scruffy outlaw beards, and traded in urbane decadence for windswept super-romanticism. Bye-bye, Duran Duran; hello, Simple Minds.
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The Killers may have grown a heart for Sam's Town, but they also grew even bigger egos, and it's unlikely that the album's bombast and self-importance will convert any new fans.
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Alternative PressA cluttered, derivative mess. [Dec 2006, p.200]
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Sam's Town works well as a cohesive album, despite its delusions of grandeur.
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Loose, sloppy playing and power hooks.
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Of course it is good to be ambitious. Of course the Killers needed to update their sound, given that the 80’s revival is fading away. But their new bombast is a classic case of a young band overreaching to assert its Significance.
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The Killers overextend themselves grabbing for the heartland's heartstrings.
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It is very good.
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FilterFlowers would do better to leave the theatrics back at Caesar's Palace. [#22, p.96]
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"Sam's Town" is a sophisticated sonic metropolis.
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An album considerably richer than "Hot Fuss" and far more worthy of mainstream hugeness.
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Whatever Sam’s Town’s scant merits, the album reminds artists to be more careful about their role models—and to avoid Bono’s phone calls.
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With those sharp synth lines, and an interesting sense of melody, the Killers have made a good album.
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UrbSam's Town is bloated with verses that helplessly swipe at capturing something, anything, significantly American. [Oct 2006, p.129]
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The Killers album is, whisper it, pretty good in places.
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[It] offers only occasional flashbacks to the seedy glamour of the debut, instead settling on lightweight MOR clichés.
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Crucially, Sam's Town sounds like a complete collection, with a far better strike rate than its predecessor.
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The highs aren't as high on "Sam's Town," but it's a better album overall.
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Ultimately, they don't come across as unbearably pretentious so much as just really, really misguided.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 269 out of 334
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Mixed: 35 out of 334
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Negative: 30 out of 334
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Sep 30, 2010
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PCNov 19, 2006
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Sep 21, 2021