Music Disc Reviews

Sam's Town Island Music •••½ Sound ••••

If ever there was an appropriate place for overproduction, it would be a concept album about Vegas. Sam's Town, messier but more fun than the Killers' debut, adds a dose of heartland rock (really more Bon Jovi than Springsteen) to the Depeche Mode-isms, and it cranks the grandiosity to overload. And that's before the boys' choirs come in, not to mention the proudly ridiculous timpani at the finale. You don't even have to pay too much attention to Brandon Flowers's now-trademark yelps, since there's so much else going on.

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