 Bows
+ Arrows |
 Everyone
Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone |
 A
Hundred Miles Off |
 Lisbon
Lead singer, Hamilton Leithauser, sounds
like Dylan if Dylan thought he
could sing. It's not to say he can't, but close your eyes and
imagine him singing the opening track, "Juveniles,"
at a Christmas party in a NYC apartment with nothing but an
acoustic for accompaniment. To me that sounds like a dream,
of course, but it would take some serious stalwart nerves and
quite a bit of eggnog to not want to retreat to the corners
as he crashed and caterwauled his way through 4:30 of what sounds
on the surface somewhat like modernized Irish folk music. It
is only with multiple listens (and probably multiple years)
that The Walkmen don't grate on your nerves, as they sound a
bit out of control at times, something like a kitchen band that
just kind of grabbed whatever was handy to bang on inside and
outside of whatever melody happens to be present at any given
time (or isn't). It's not to say the band isn't musical, because
they are, but there's a certain amount of echoey cacophony and
lack of song structure in places that could drive an unprepared
man to tears. To be honest, that's one of the things that has
gotten to me on their past albums: the songs seem to build and
want to go places, but they hit this point that always seems
to be on the precipice of going nuts, but they end up playing
out the tension the entire song without that release we so want
in our rock songs. They do certainly toe that line here, but
they actually let loose on song two, "Angela Surf City,"
easily my favorite song on the album. Song five, "Stranded,"
has segments in it that remind me of some Peter Gabriel song
mixed with a Mexican folk song (which is better than it sounds),
and others just pour on the old-timey despair. But sad-sackery
is kind of their thing, though they do it in more of a Little
Tramp way than a Morrissey or slowcore
kind of bent. The album does lag in places and sounds a bit
samey in others, and I wish they would skip some of the Tom
Waits songs and hit more on the faster tunes, which really
do rock but are too few and far between. I do really love their
sound, but just wish on this album I could grab them and shake
them out of their fog at times and tell them that anthematic
and rollicking really suits them--and that their next album
should expand that sound from three or four songs to at least
six and maybe go on from there. |
 You
& Me |
Musical Connections:
Jonathan
Fire*Eater
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