It’s Tunesday again, haven’t done one of these since mid-July. What Album the time around? Well, as you may or may not have determined from the title, the album is Sam’s Town, The Killers’ latest release. They’ve taken a step forward from the synth sound, but thankfully haven’t left it completely. It may take a second listen before hard-core The Killers fans accept the more rock oriented music, but I’m really liking it. I’d read some thing about the album before I got it today, the band said it was a lot more rough. I loved Hot Fuss so I was hoping it wasn’t too different. I have to admit when I played the first track and heard those uncharacteristic heavy rock guitar riffs come in, I was a bit sceptical, but after a couple of listens it is now one of my favourite tracks on the album. And, to clarify, the difference isn’t that major, it is just a big jump from Somebody Told Me to many of these tracks.

Unfortunately, this album does have some negative points. I’d have to say the main problem is with the use of When You Were Young as the first single. A common marketing strategy of record labels is to release what they believe to be the second or third best song on the album as the first single. This builds hype for the album, as the track is usually catchy and will sell a lot of albums (Ex: Promiscuous, Sexyback.) Then, they release the best track. The Killers did this with Hot Fuss, Somebody Told Me was a huge hit, but they were really setting up for the track that meant the most to them, Mr. Brighside. I was kind of expecting this to be the case with Sam’s Town, unfortunately, in my opinion, When You Were Young is really the best track on the album, which is a little disappointing. I’m not saying there aren’t some songs that rival it, the title track Sam’s Town is really good and I love Bones as it is probably the most like the songs from the band’s first album.

I’m finding it really hard to give a final verdict. Sam’s Town probably won’t have the same main-stream appeal as Hot Fuss, but that may be a good thing. The album is without a doubt more mature and thoughtful, and that is a major plus. So, I think this is how it pretty much stacks up: If you like the synth feel of Hot Fuss, you may be a little upset but will still probably enjoy the album. If you don’t like that kind of thing, and especially if you are into rock or alternative rock, this is an album you should really look into getting. If you don’t want the whole album, my top picks can be seen below. Expect to see them on my Last.fm page a lot in the coming weeks.

1. Bones
2. When You Were Young
3. Sam’s Town
4. Why Do I Keep Counting?

Note: I’m no longer linking to legal music download sites as I’m getting really annoyed with the copy protection. I’ve bought the song, I should be able to put it on another one of my own computers if I’d like to. I’m sticking to buying CDs for a while, they haven’t lost their usefulness yet.

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