I loved Hot Fuss with a passion (I bought it when they were new and unknown on a whim, so very glad I did, and fell in love) so when I heard Sam’s Town was coming, I bought it pretty much immediately.

On first listening I was incredibly disappointed, as it seemed like everything I’d liked from Hot Fuss was gone, the sharpness, the edgness was missing. It took me several months before I found myself wanting to listen to one of the songs. I ended up letting it play in the background while I was painting one day and listened to the whole album through 2 or 3 times. From there I suddenly started hearing it differently and it’s really developed into a favourite. It’s a very different sound to Hot Fuss, there are still some things which don’t quite work- it seems to me that they’re trying to sound kind of… emo in some of the tracks (think Bright Eyes or Dashboard Confessional) but on the whole it’s a more mature album, with a lot more of a studio feel, which is both good and bad.

Personal favourite tracks are probably the title track- “Sam’s Town”, the Interlude and “This river is wild” Some twiddly little lyrical moves coupled with awesome guitar (as ever) makes for some pretty sweet songs. (that whole “I still remember Grandma Dixie’s wake, I’d never really known anybody that died before/ Red White and Blue upon a birthday cake, my brother he was born on the fourth of July” line really sings out to me as pure awesome for some reason- something in Brandon’s voice is just perfect here.)

It’s a grower, but definitely work taking the effort over in my opinion.

Like the bright lights of Vegas where The Killers hail from, their sophomore effort shines like the glitz and glam of The Strip. The album comes with a bonus CD which has some rather interesting pieces. My favourite songs on the album are both the Enterlude & Exitlude, the currently-hot-on-the-airwaves When You Were Young, For Reasons Unknown, Uncle Jonny, My List, This River Is Wild & Why Do I Keep Counting?. A BRILLIANT album! This is one of my favourite albums of 2006.

Despite seemingly popular opinion I like this album is as good as Hot Fuss. That could partly be because I waited for the flurry to wear off before I listened to the first one, so I had zero expectations. Tracks like “Sam’s Town”, “River is Wild”, and “Why do I keep counting?” are as good as any of their earlier hits.

I was really impressed with this album, I liked the first offering from the Killers, but didn’t really give it much repeat listening, though the more well known tracks appear regularly on nights out in clubs and always go down well there.

But this album has much more operatic rock feel to it, loud tunes with interesting lyrics and hooks that make it feel like it really has something to say.

Well worth listening to for anyone who likes the Killers, or groups such as Muse.