Sam’s Town was a widescreen record filled with reach-for-the-sky rock ‘n’ roll anthems that sought to reposition the band as an heir to Bruce Springsteen. But it didn’t really work for critics. Despite selling almost 5 million copies worldwide, the record received mixed reviews (Rolling Stone was particularly harsh), and Flowers faced some backlash for what many thought was the singer overshooting the record’s (and his own) importance. However, a 2009 Rolling Stone readers poll voted Sam’s Town as the most underrated album of the decade and Q magazine named it the 11th best album of the entire decade.
Quote:
I still feel proud of the album 10 years on. When you write a song or record, there is some primitive desire to connect. And with Hot Fuss, we definitely connected. Maybe it was geared more toward the erogenous zones, but we connected. With Sam’s Town we went in through the heart, and it really created a bond between us and our fans.
I think it was misunderstood because it was hard for people to swallow that the same four anglophiles in Dior suits from Hot Fuss were now positioning themselves as American rock ‘n’ roll saviors
