Music

When The Killers passed on the opportunity to replace Kylie as Sunday night headliners at last year’s Glasto, their indie-gospel anthem ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’ took on an extra sentiment of regret. After all, Razorlight – with whom the Las Vegans have shared a similar career trajectory – had little fear of topping the Other Stage with just one album under their belts. This scaredy-cat behaviour was shocking, not least because frontman Brandon Flowers is more than equal to Johnny Borrell in the ego stakes.

Judging from this follow-up to ‘Hot Fuss’, The Killers are making sure it’s not a decision they rue. Bigger and bolder, they’ve pumped up the brooding, early ’80s synth-pop of their debut with an injection of widescreen U2. But it’s the blueprint of ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’, from which Coldplay borrowed the ‘I got soul, but I’m not a soldier’ refrain for their own live shows, that the band closely follow. Brandon Flowers is joined time and time again by the massed voices of his bandmates, building their almost comically dramatic indie pop into towering anthems. There’s also a playfulness here that belies their po-faced, careerist posturing. They kick off the magical mystery tour of ‘Sam’s Town’ with an ‘Enterlude’ (ho ho!) of ‘hope you enjoy your stay’; ‘Uncle Jonny’ sounds like a camp Oasis with Liam’s balls caught in his zipper; ‘Why Do I Keep Counting’ is ELO as produced by Phil Spector; and ‘Exitlude’ is a glittery tear-jerker that will have lighters aloft in the arenas.There are moments when their constant attempts to draw the listener into a singalong backfire, as on ‘My List’ and their Dexys update, ‘Bones’, which see them wobble horribly out of tune. And Flowers’ brief homage to Lou Reed’s drawl on ‘Exitlude’ does sound a mite contrived. But, overall, ‘Sam’s Town’ suggests that they’re asking for festival headline slots this time.