As
The Killers prep their new record,
Battle Born, for a release later this month, six years ago, the Vegas glam rockers released a record that some saw as their "Sophomore Slump," and were ready to close the book on one of America's exciting new bands.
Sam's Town arrived in the fall of 2006 after much hype and curiosity as to what the follow-up to the bands brilliant and near flawless 2004 debut,
Hot Fuss, arrived on the scene. The second albums first single, the Springsteen inspired, "When You Were Young," giving rock and roll a needed erection, it heard the band dropping the 80's new wave inspiration of
New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Erasure and
Yazoo that provided to be one of the key elements to their success, and heard them pick up raging guitars, swelling vocals and looking to get out of the clubs and into arenas.
Sam's Town was a shift in personalities for The Killers, it wasn't glam, it was rock and roll and it was a sucker punch to everyone who picked it up. When it was released the reviews were generally unfavorable and it looked like one the biggest and most praised rising bands were about to take a nose dive into oblivion. However, with a smart approach to releasing as many singles as they could and clever videos, the band was in heavy rotation on rock and Top 40 radio and even had videos on various TV channels. The Killers were not going to be killed by their new direction and
Sam's Town hears them daring with other 80's icons like
U2 and
The Police. Even working with U2 collaborators
Flood and photographer
Anton Corbin, The Killers took a chance that even with flawed results, years later still remains to be an interesting record for the Sin City clan.
