Killers only average? No way!

By Charles Young
George Washington High School

While perusing November’s Flipside, I was shocked to read a disparaging review of The Killer’s new album. Ever since I bought the album, it has been in constant rotation in my CD player and on my iPod. I was shocked to hear that someone had less then positive things to say about it.

I respect the fact that everyone is entitled to their own option. With that said, here’s mine:

On The Killer’s second album, “Sam’s Town,” the boys of “Hot Fuss” wash off the make-up, channel Bruce Springsteen and keep their epic sound. From the opening title track to the closing “Exitlude,” the Killers have captured brilliance and made a second perfect album, throughout which they embrace their influences, blending elements of Queen, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, New Order and Led Zeppelin, to create something completely unique and all their own.

The CD takes its name from the Sam’s Town Hotel and Gambling Hall in The Killers’ hometown of Las Vegas. Over the course of 12 tracks, songwriter/vocalist Brandon Flowers paints the picture of the Los Vegas he knows and loves — the Vegas beyond the gaudy neon of the strip; the Vegas full of real people, whose love, loss and heartbreak serve as Flower’s inspiration.

“Never really gave up on breaking out of this two-star town,” Flowers sings of Vegas on “Read My Mind” and “I know I can make it, as long as somebody takes me home every now and then” from the title track.

On tracks like “When You Were Young,” “This River Is Wild” and “Bones,” The Killers perfectly capture teenage angst, the burning American dream and the lusting itch to experience all that life has to offer, all in one sweeping motion. On “For Reasons Unknown,” Flowers speaks out for a generation disillusioned by love, moaning, “My lips don’t kiss the way they used to.”

Flowers recently boasted to Giant magazine that the album is “one of the best albums in the past 20 years,” and he told Entertainment Weekly that it’s “the album that keeps rock & roll afloat.” “Sam’s Town” lives up to this boasting, pushing itself to the forefront of this year’s releases.

Key Tracks: “When You Were Young,” “Uncle Johnny,” “Sam’s Town”