Nobody Ever Had a Dream Round Here

Of all the retro eighties synth-pop bands that have been trying to resurrect the sound in recent years, The Killers were the only ones that made songs that were listenable. The key to their success was they treaded lightly on the synthesizer sound while Brandon Flowers sang grandiose lyrics which where at heart kind of quirky. Some something happened between that first album and their follow up Sam’s Town and that change can be summed up in a name: Bruce Springsteen.

Now I would never be against anyone who would like to model their sound after the Boss, but when your original sound is far from it and works for you, I’m not sure it would be that good a decision to make that drastic change. Plus it hasn’t been that good of a summer for those making grand predictions for their next album (see Angels and Airwaves trying to channel U2 and Ludacris claiming his latest album being the one that will make everyone take him serious). And when Flowers claimed the album was influenced by Springsteen, apparently he only listened to albums with “Born” in the title because the album sounds like it’s trying to recreate the bombast of Springsteen’s most commercially successful albums. So on Sam’s Town gone are the quirky lyrics, unless you count the absurdly titled Bling (Confessions of a King), replaced by stories of Americana seen through those that live in Las Vegas.

With all the Springsteen talk, the album is bookmarked by a pair of songs that sound right out of Moulin Rouge with the Enterlude and Exitlude with their lounge act feel. Oddly enough, that album doesn’t even start with the Enterlude, instead it starts with the title track, the band’s first attempted to recreate a Springsteen arena rock anthem. But then for some reason during the break they have a chorus start singing, “I see London.” Maybe I’m just too sophomoric, but I can’ imagine anyone hearing the song for the first time and not think, “I see France” will be the next line.

There is a section in the middle of the album where the band goes back to its roots with eighties sounding songs that are more David Bowie than Springsteen starting with For Reasons Unknown, Read My Mind, Bones, and My List but are missing the fun lyrics that set the band apart from other bands of the genre, past and present. Bones itself is a morbidly creepy song which sentiment will most like only be increased by the Tim Burton directed video. But in the middle is the closest song the band comes to anything on Hot Fuss with Uncle Johnny. The crushing guitars of the song suggest something darker than the band has ever done and definitely doesn’t come from Springsteen but the choir at the end is reminiscent of the one at the end of All These Things I’ve Done. Unfortunately the band doesn’t hide the fact the rest of the album is mediocre at best.

Song to Download - Uncle Johnny

Sam’s Town gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.