The Killers Sam's Town: Springsteen, Queen, and Deadwood

I picked up Sam’s Town_, the new record from The Killers, this week. I had seen them perform a lot of the new tunes at the Virgin Festival at Pimlico a few weeks back, and the benefit of being able to listen to the songs over and over in the intended order showed me that there is no sophmore slump with these guys. Quite the opposite in fact. I know the reviews from Rolling Stonerssfeed and Village Voice rip the record, but I think it’s a good solid record. The song “Read My Mind” is screaming mid 1980s Springsteen and “Why Do I Keep Counting” is obviously Queen influenced.

Lead singer Brandon Flowers looks like Timothy Olyphant’s character from HBO’s Deadwood and the rest of the band has shed their mod/new wave look in favor of late 1800s western bar clothes. One might think that they are lobbying for a cameo as the bar band in the season finale.

What I’m curious about is why everyone is so bent out of shape about this. Madonna changes her look with every single record and no one cares. U2 shifts every 3 albums or so. Most pop artists don’t stick with one thing for long. I admit that I tend to attach to the musical composition long before the lyrics, so that might be the critical difference here.

So I ask: Why the backlash against the Killers?