The Killers

The Killers' new album, Sam's Town, features a host of guitars that sound like Nissan Sentra engines and a desperately confused drummer caught between John Bonham bonzai bluster and Meg White's dumbstruck austerity. But the thing we're gonna focus on with regard to the record unfortunately not called Sam's Ass Cabin is frontman Brandon Flowers. Dude grew up in one of the most sociologically extreme places in the world (Vegas, baby), and the amount of pathos he brings to Town makes the guy in Fall Out Boy look like Robert Johnson. Then there are his lyrics. Words rhymed on this album include "higher," "wire" and "fire." Then there's "burn" and "turn," followed by "refrained," "cocaine," "brain" and "pain." Supposedly, Sam's is a concept record, but the sincerity and intelligence behind that assertion can be gleaned in the song-as-intervention "Uncle Jonny": "Tell us what's going on/Feels like everything's wrong.../If the future is real/Jonny, you've got to heal." A rock song about a guy named Jonny? Uncle Jonny? Seriously? Homies, just sing about MySpace and that boyfriend that looks like your girlfriend. At least then we'll believe you.