Sam's Town

The album takes its name from Sam's Town Hotel and Gambling Hall, a hotel and casino in Las Vegas, the band's hometown. Sam's Town was also a huge sign that was visible to band member Mark Stoermer through his room window when he was young. ==Artwork==

According to photographer Anton Corbijn, the band initially wanted a "chic, gypsy look" for the album, and that "out of those discussions [for the sleeve] came these elements of faded glory." The album's co-producer, Flood, is dressed as a Native American in the CD booklet. The artwork inside the album booklet is taken from a Downtown Las Vegas mural painted by Suzanne Hackett-Morgan, a local painter. The cover artwork of ''Sam's Town'' features model and singer Felice LaZae. It also features a Desert bighorn sheep, the state mammal and popular symbol of Nevada, where the Killers are from. ==Production==

The album is said to be influenced by the works of U2, Duran Duran, Bruce Springsteen, the Beatles, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Electric Light Orchestra, and Dire Straits, among others. In the October 2006 issue of Giant magazine, Flowers was quoted as saying that ''Sam's Town would be "one of the best albums in the past twenty years", and in Entertainment Weekly'' he remarked that it would be "the album that keeps rock & roll afloat." Flowers later said of production techniques used on the record, "We didn't use too many vocal effects. On the first album, we used auto-tune, and I didn't even realize what was going on with these machines and the computer. I was adamant about not using it this time. You really hear what my voice sounds like, for the first time." At one point, Flowers was told that Brian Eno had passed over the chance to produce the album, a rejection that affected Flowers greatly. However, when working with Eno for Wonderful Wonderful, Eno told him that he was never offered the project in the first place. ==Tour==

In support of the album, the Killers embarked on the Sam's Town Tour throughout 2006 and 2007. The tour started in Las Vegas on August 23, 2006 and ended in Melbourne on November 14, 2007. The tour, which was also in support of the band's 2007 compilation album Sawdust, saw the band perform in countries such as Brazil and Argentina for the first time and was described as "a blessing live" by Variety magazine. ==Critical reception==

Initially, ''Sam's Town'' received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 64, based on 32 reviews. In a review for NME, Krissi Murison highlighted both the similarities to Hot Fuss and the evolution of the band's sound from the debut to ''Sam's Town'', concluding: "All this, however, isn't to say that The Killers have gone all (God forbid) serious on us. The tunes may be huger, the influences cleverer, the lyrics more adventurous and the band more self-assured, but their primary concern is still being the biggest indie-pop stars on the planet. For all their smart new ways, The Killers are still as flashy, unintentionally funny, and flagrantly affected as ever – and this time we wouldn't even pretend to have it any other way." Similarly, Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone noted a significant departure from Hot Fuss, writing that on ''Sam's Town'', the band "ditch[es] their cheerfully fake Bowie moves and try to get heavy by copying Bruce Springsteen. Yes, that means glockenspiel solos. Yes, it means anthems about the road and looking for America and girls named Mary. No, it's not a good move." In later years, the album gained a cult following and has been critically lauded as a classic and one of the best rock albums of the 2000s. Despite its two-star rating by Rolling Stone, ''Sam's Town'' was voted by the magazine's readers in December 2009 as the most underrated album of the decade. Accolades : ==Commercial performance==

''Sam's Town debuted at number two on the US Billboard'' 200, selling 315,000 copies in its first week. , the album had sold 1.3 million copies in the United States. It had sold 1.57 million copies in the United Kingdom by July 2017. ==In popular culture==

Six months after the death of American YouTuber Technoblade, his father revealed on the r/technoblade subreddit that, in his son's instructions for the video that would announce his death, he included a link to a joint YouTube video of the songs "Enterlude" and "Exitlude". Technoblade's father was unsure of how his son wanted the song to be inserted into the video and did not include it due to problems it could cause with copyright. Popular Twitch streamer xQc has regularly used "Exitlude" as outro music for his streams. ==Track listing==

All tracks are produced by Flood, Alan Moulder and the Killers. ==Personnel==

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Sam's Town''. The Killers • Dave Keuning • Mark Stoermer • Brandon Flowers • Ronnie Vannucci Jr. Additional musicians • Corlene Byrd – backing vocals on "Why Do I Keep Counting?" • Louis XIV – backing vocals on "Sam's Town" and "My List" • Tommy Marth – saxophones • Neeraj Khajanchi – trombone • Adrina Hanson – strings • Maryam Haddad – strings • Tristan Moyer – strings Technical • Flood – production, recording, mixing • Alan Moulder – production, recording, mixing • The Killers – production • Mark Gray – additional engineering • Neeraj Khajanchi – additional engineering • Max Dingel – additional engineering • Andy Savours – mix engineering • Howie Weinberg – mastering Artwork • Andy West – art direction, design • Anton Corbijn – photography • Kristen Yiengst – photo, art coordination • Doug Joswick – package production Studios • Studio at the Palms (Las Vegas, Nevada) – recording • Criterion Studios (London) – additional recording • Assault & Battery (London) – mixing • Masterdisk (New York City) – mastering ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Decade-end charts ==Certifications and sales==