Replacing Hot Fuss's new wave / electro style with a series of rural American landscapes elicited a polarised response at the time. Back then, I really enjoyed the newfound narrative storytelling, and it was my favourite album for a while.
... However, recent listening has resulted in some gripes, mainly relating to the recording quality. Oh my goodness, the mastering of this is terrible. Starting at the bottom, kick-drum and bass guitar have very little low-pitched content, leaving a hole at the bottom of the spectrum. Moving up, the rest of the drums sound miniscule and there's a harshness to the high-pitched sounds. And while these problems can be reduced with some (quite extreme) EQ tweaks, the nasally/compressed vocals on some songs isn't something that can be reduced without problematic side-effects. Looking for a silver lining in this cloud, the synths provide good fill and are well integrated rather than tacked-on.
On the songwriting front, I really like the departure from the traditional verse-chorus structure. Many of the songs have nice "pre-choruses" to subtly push them along, saving the highlight chorus for the big finale. It works well. Sam's Town is a good example of this structure. My favourite section is the pre-chorus with the offbeat hi-hat. Also, somehow the following phrase is a wonderful depiction of being patriotic:
Red, white and blue
upon a birthday cake.
My brother, he was born
on the fourth of July.
Not so wonderful is that the highlight ("I see London / I see Sam's Town") is a letdown and then the song fades out with a whimper. Despite this, the song remains a solid opening track...
... which makes the inclusion of Enterlude as the second track completely pointless. After the first track has established the energy of the album, Enterlude completely destroys the flow for the sake of concept album wank.
The energy of Bling is fantastic, continually forward driving, yet also leaving room for the climax of the "higher and higher" ending. Like many songs on the album, the storytelling in the lyrics is brilliant.
For Reasons Unknown is my favourite song on the album. For me, the lyrics perfectly illustrate the frustrations of witnessing ageing relatives lose their faculties. Yet the musically it is very uplifting, making for a superbly bittersweet experience.
I also like Read My Mind, particularly some of the chord progressions. This might sound strange for a rock song, but its a rare novelty for a band like this to throw some interesting chords into the mix. While the verses are pretty generic, the pre-chorus is nice and it features a good singalong chorus. And somehow it reminds me of early songs by The Strokes.
Uncle Johnny is just what the doctor ordered- a different style to inject some variety into middle of the album. And, again, great lyrics.
Yet another songs with a great story is Bones. While the first chorus is a bit flat, it turns out this is to "save the best for last". Which means we are rewarded with an epic final chorus, where the plastic horns and thousand overdubs are well used. When You Were Young follows a similar recipe, although I find the earlier sections to be quite disjointed.
From here, it goes downhill unfortunately. I'll try to quickly summarise the trainwreck: My List is a rambling mess. The verses of This River is Wild are have their moments but the chorus is a big letdown. Why Do I Keep Counting is just a mess of tacky ideas carelessly thrown together (and the cheesy call-and-response lyrics at the start are a particular lowlight). Finally, Exitlude feels more like "congratulations for making to the finish" than anything else. Ironically, the song itself outstays its welcome at the end...