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"After four years of nonstop touring and recording, the Killers finally took some time off before beginning work on their third album &amp;#x2014; but frontman Brandon Flowers wasn&amp;apos;t ready to relax. He wound up using the three months of downtime to write nearly 30 songs. &amp;quot;Everything is at stake on this album,&amp;quot; Flowers says. &amp;quot;Everything. I live through these songs. People make such a big deal about the second album: &amp;apos;Do or die.&amp;apos; But I feel like the pressure to produce something great will always be there. It&amp;apos;s our job, after all.&amp;quot;\r\nThe Killers&amp;apos; second release, 2006&amp;apos;s concept album Sam&amp;apos;s Town, was an overseas smash and sold 1.3 million copies in the U.S. &amp;#x2014; about half of their debut, 2004&amp;apos;s Hot Fuss. But some critics pegged the album&amp;apos;s stadium-rock sound as overblown. Flowers shrugs off those gripes &amp;#x2014; &amp;quot;Sam&amp;apos;s Town was a giant success. That&amp;apos;s a misunderstood truth&amp;quot; &amp;#x2014; but the Killers took a new approach on this album, which was produced by Madonna collaborator Stuart Price. &amp;quot;This record is stripped down in a lot of ways,&amp;quot; says bassist Mark Stoermer. &amp;quot;Each instrument has its place, and things aren&amp;apos;t clouding anything up. We&amp;apos;re not trying to be bombastic. It&amp;apos;s our most poppy record but also our most experimental.&amp;quot;\r\nThe band debuted two new songs from the album, &amp;quot;Spaceman&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Neon Tiger,&amp;quot; at a surprise New York club show in late July. &amp;quot;Spaceman&amp;quot; is a tight, fast pop tune, with punky, guitar-heavy verses and a funky bridge with subject-appropriate spacey synth effects. &amp;quot;The spaceman says, &amp;apos;Everybody look down,&amp;apos; &amp;quot; Flowers sings in the chorus. The midtempo &amp;quot;Neon Tiger&amp;quot; is more anthemic and synth-heavy, with Flowers singing, &amp;quot;Neon tiger, there&amp;apos;s a price on your head/Never let them touch you.&amp;quot; Other songs include &amp;quot;Vibration&amp;quot; (working title), which Stoermer describes as &amp;quot;a fun dance track,&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Goodnight, Travel Well,&amp;quot; a seven-minute experimental epic.\r\nAs Flowers tells it, criticism of the band has only made it stronger. &amp;quot;We learned that you can&amp;apos;t please everyone,&amp;quot; Flowers says. &amp;quot;But we&amp;apos;ve got faith in what we do, faith in our fans and faith in the soon-to-be-converted.&amp;quot;\r\nRelated Stories: &amp;#x2022; Review: Sam&amp;apos;s Town &amp;#x2022; Review: Hot Fuss"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/in-the-studio-killers-fight-back-with-stripped-down-third-cd-20080812>