A feel-good sense of anticipation inhabits the title track, while the nonsensical “Bling (Confessions of a King)” features the lucid line, “We’re gonna make it out of the fire.” “Uncle Jonny” appears to be a cautionary tale about a cocaine addict’s need to change. When hope is gone, a man assures the woman he loves, “Your prayers, they’re not fables” (“My List”). Lead singer and practicing Mormon Brandon Flowers does a lot of soul searching on “Why Do I Keep Counting?” but …
His “prayers” yield fuzzy revelations that could be heard as a mandate to pursue good times above all else. A line on “Read My Mind” alludes to teen suicide. According to The Killers, it’s OK to dip our toes in the devil’s water “every once in a little while” (“When You Were Young”), and liking a woman isn’t a prerequisite for soliciting sex from her (“Bones”). The cover photo shows a busty girl in a bikini. On “This River Is Wild” a man reportedly resents his mother “because that b–ch keeps trying to make him pray.” Such disrespect for women makes one wonder the point of “All the Pretty Faces,” a cryptic (bonus disc) song that comes across as a rapist/kidnapper threatening his quarry.
This poetic hodgepodge leans toward bleak ambiguity, but there’s a spiritual confusion and creepy tone that tell us teens should bypass Sam’s Town.
