You can't blame The Killers for wanting to be the biggest band in the world. You can blame them, however, for trying to gobble up all the glory in one derivative, self-indulgent, over-bloated, damn near unbearable (at times) follow-up to their promising debut.

Sam's Town, named after a dump of a casino if there ever was one on the outskirts of Las Vegas (The Killers hometown), couldn't be a more ironic title for The Killers sophomore offering. Sam's Town (the casino) is one of the last of a dying breed; a seedy joint that Sam Boyd built back in the 70's, (an era in which you definitely didn't bring your kids to Vegas for a family vacation). It's laughable that The Killers would name their new record after such a place, although The Mirage would've been more apropriate; because that's exactly what it is - all shimmer and glitz, with the illusion of style and virtually no substance.

It is blatantly obvious that, as a band, The Killers ache to be U2. Every lead-guitar and bass line is cribbed straight from the school of The Edge and Adam Clayton. They don't even try to hide it. They hire the same producers that U2 have used (Flood and Alan Moulder seem to be in check cashing mode here, not helping The Killers to sound original at all) and hell, they even hire the same damn photographer. If those desert-ish black and whites on the back cover and jacket artwork seem familiar, that's because they're the work of Anton Corbijn, the man behind the lens for U2's The Joshua Tree. Remember that? Yeah, well so do The Killers obviously. Just as interesting little aside, Brandon Flowers was 5 when Joshua Tree was all over the radio.

It seems that Flowers is not only interested in hacking at Bono's legacy, he's also got a big jones for the Boss. First single "When You Were Young" is so "Born To Run" that Springsteen could sue for royalties. I'm not saying it's a bad song, (it's actually one of the record's best, believe it or not) it's just completely unoriginal. Tepid, lifeless and hollow are the best words to describe Sam's Town on the whole. If The Killers don't start cultivating some originality somehow, the answer to the question "What's the difference between them and their home towns' phony replicas of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower?" will be: nothing.