Reviews: The Killers, Beck

Reviews: The Killers, Beck

The Killers 'Sam's Town': Aidin Vaziri | Brandon Flowers has an incredible voice. On the Killers' mega-selling first album, 2004's "Hot Fuss," he used it to pull off a faux British accent that somehow managed to all at once sound like Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon, the Cure's Robert Smith and New Order's Bernard Sumner. Now, on "When You Were Young," the introductory single to his band's sophomore release, "Sam's Town," Flowers' voice has morphed yet again, going all New Jersey in tribute to the singer's new hero, Bruce Springsteen. Could this band be from anywhere but Las Vegas, where imitation is almost as good as the real thing, if not better? Following the success of its synth pop-heavy predecessor, the group rightly sets out to re-create the ultimate arena album in "Sam's Town," drawing on influences like U2, Simple Minds and the Boss -- maybe even a bit of Meat Loaf. The band members have even grown beards for it. Seriously. Naturally, everything is done in immaculate-if-plastic Sin City-style detail, with windswept guitar solos, over-the-top choruses and lyrics that conjure thousands of flashing lights. Songs like "Bling (Confessions of a King)" and "My List" are wonderfully sanitized epics, fit for both tight-trousered hipsters and fanny pack-wearing pop tourists. But would a few songs about the anguish of buffet lines have been too much to ask?

Beck 'The Information': Aidin Vaziri | Yes, the music is great. We already know that. He's Beck. Even if he made an album that sounded like Fergie, you know he would do some crazy robot dance in the video for the first single that would be funny as hell and make the rest of the CD sound 98 percent better. Plus, "The Information" was produced by Nigel Godrich -- the man behind Radiohead's "OK Computer," Beck's "Sea Change" and, er, Band Aid 20's rap-addled remake of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Anyway, what we're really excited about is the album cover. It's just a sheet of blank graph paper that comes with stickers of trees, clouds and lips and stuff. You can arrange it however you like, even if you want to spell out rude words or make a mountain do something naughty with Beck's backside. Not since the Stones wrote "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" has rock 'n' roll been so unpredictable.