15 Greatest Rock Concept Albums From The Last 15 Years

10. The Killers - Sam's Town

The band's Las Vegas roots were played up to a glitzy maximum on their debut album, Hot Fuss, finding a way to portray the sound of neon lights and feather boas in airtight dance-rock songs like "Mr. Brightside" and "Change Your Mind." But for their follow-up, the band decided to venture off the Vegas Strip and take listeners on a journey of the city's grimy, sublimely mundane outskirts. They still brought in the synthesizers to craft stylish melodies, but the guitars had lost their shimmer and the songs didn't sparkle quite so feverishly this time around. Sam's Town is the perfect example of a rough concept album, as it's really more of a predecessor to the Foo Fighters' Sonic Highways album, except The Killers' are aiming to capture the sound of a very, very specific area with this album. Not everyone fell in love with Sam's Town, feeling like the band spent too much time trying replicate a Bruce Springsteen sound that even Bruce Springsteen had moved on from by then. But "Bones" and "My List" are as good as anything else The Killers have ever produced. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60sv7WV5zY8
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