The Walkmen

Pop Matters Best 2012 on The Walkmen

#13 The Walkmen’s seventh full-length studio effort proves that the label “daddy rock” shouldn’t be used only as an insult. Heaven is a collection of mature, emotionally resonant rock songs about the pleasures and perils of adulthood...full article here

Pretty Much Amazing Best 2012 on The Walkmen

#11 The postmodern punk outfit with the once smug front man Hamilton Leithauser, have eased into adulthood on their lustrous sixth album, Heaven. The Walkmen are taking a wide-angle view on this record, simultaneously looking back on their career as well as embracing the inevitable passage into adulthood...full article here

Spinner Best of 2012 on The Walkmen

#43 "We can't be beat" croons Hamilton Leithauser on the opening track of the Walkmen's sixth studio album, and it appears he's right...full article here

Stereogum Best of 2012 on The Walkmen

#8 Heaven (Fat Possum)

TheOwlMag on The Walkmen

Artist: The Walkmen Album: You & Me Label: Gigantic Rating: Buy it >>

Most bands claim to have a “sound” which usually ends up being described as a hybrid of other bands. The Walkmen are one of the few bands that sound like no one else. But that’s not the interesting thing about them, what’s unique is that within the “sound” they’ve created, they have managed to go so many places without deviating from its original integrity. It’s easy for a band to experiment, and come up with new sounds, but what The Walkmen do is entirely different.

Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone first established the heavy wall of sound. The sound was the star of the show at first, and Hamilton Leithauser was a distant crooner singing about other people with no personal stake, almost a detached observer in the back ground yelling “Wake up!” The piano dominated the album, and musicianship was the real statement by the band.

The sound was further realized and cleaned up slightly for the classic Bows + Arrows. The band released their most defining songs to date with the explosive “The Rat” and “Little House of Savages.” Leithauser was suddenly awake and pretty angry, confessing in a Dylan-esque drawl “What’s in it for me? I came here for a good time, and you’re turning me off.”

2006′s A Hundred Miles Off had many bright spots including the powerful “All Hands and the Cook,” the Cash-esque “Brandy Alexander,” and “This Job is Killing Me,” but the band seemed to lose a bit of their focus. Tracks like “Tenley-Town” didn’t work, and they seemed restless.

The guys were at Noise Pop this past spring, and while their live sets are always a must see, they really killed at the Independent that night, and they hardly played any older tracks, which usually makes for a bored audience.

The songs that resonated so well with the audience were off of You & Me, it was like the audience had lived with them for years. The band played with so much confidence and passion it was hard not to be pulled in. The new songs still exist in the framework of the sound, but the band has become so much more intimate, as the title would suggest. The album sounds absolutely amazing and feels like a classic “American” recording that exists without an expiration date. It sounds like it could have been born at the same time as rock ‘n’ roll itself, or completely contemporary. There is a patience within the album that other bands would kill for. The wall of sound that the band had incorporated as a signature is reserved when they wind up and need to break out, but every instrument is given room to breathe like never before, and Leithauser’s voice is the anchor.

“Donde Esta La Playa” starts the record with a heavy bass line before Leithauser’s voice cuts through—”It’s back to the battle today, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” But what was once a distant Leithauser lyric moves into something personal and narrative and he sings in a bridge: “I’m dancing through this, this lovely wooden floor…there is still sand in my suitcase…there is still salt on my teeth…I kissed her in the window…and she covered up her face, she’s pretty and cherry…I know that your married the rings on your hand, so I didn’t stay ’til the end.”

A classic rambler in the vein of Kerouac narrates the album, and is hopeful and romantic in a way that is so different from anything the band has done to this point. By the time our rambler sings about the hopefulness of the “New Year’s Eve” we’re almost giddy “Out of the darkness and into the fire. I tell you I love you, and my hearts in the strangest place, that’s how it started. And that’s how it ends. And I know you’re with me, it’s point of pride, and it’s louder than lightning, in this room of mine.” It swells and sways so beautifully—it’s grand stuff. Easily the soundtrack for an edgy wedding, that is both beautiful and powerful, with more than a dash of grace.

- Review submitted by Jeff Bracco.

Buzz Bands LA on The Walkmen

Today's going to be a scorcher, but there are plenty of shows to keep you cool: ► The Walkmen and Milo Greene do a second SoCal show together this week. This time they're at the Observatory in Orange County. ► Canadian electronic band Austra brings their "dark wave" to the El Rey Theatre. Nightmare Fortress and Vice Device support. ► Port of Los Angeles' Lobsterfest down in San Pedro continues with Dum Dum Girls, JJAMZ , NO , more here

Quit Mumbling on The Walkmen

Tweet Just kind of amazing... And now, a B-Side from 2010 favorite, Lisbon... The Walkmen - "Orange Sunday" (Lisbon B-side) from stereogum on Vimeo . more here

Quit Mumbling on The Walkmen

If Hamilton Leithauser raises his children anything like he has "raised" The Walkmen's music , than he is assuredly an amazing father. In their youngest years The Walkmen were caffeine-ridden rockers that garnered attention for their seemingly endless pit of brazen energy . You loved them in the same way you love watching a kid run around after too much chocolate cake, destroying anything and everything in his or her path. But you know they can't continue like that forever. At a certain point they need to be able to eat their chocolate cake and contain themselves, perhaps over political discourse more here

Quit Mumbling on The Walkmen

The Walkmen released another song off their upcoming Heaven today. Off the heels of their title track , "We Can't Be Beat" is all about the necessity of the other side of perfection, and danger in not planning for and accommodating failure along the way (" Golden dreams all lose their glow") . It starts off like a lullaby, with Hamilton Leithause's recognizable warble over leisurely-picked strings before reaching a Western dirt-kicked gallop into the sunset, like a man who's lived through his convictions. Their follow-up to Lisbon is out May 29. more here

Quit Mumbling on The Walkmen

The Walkmen released a non-album track as the b-side to first single "Heaven" this week, and it's gorgeous. Leithauser's vocals move at a leisurely pace through inherited memories towards that damn build in the final minute that renders the last arc of the song completely afloat. The album is out May 29 on Fat Possum . more here

Quit Mumbling on The Walkmen

Tweet Just kind of amazing... And now, a B-Side from 2010 favorite, Lisbon... The Walkmen - "Orange Sunday" (Lisbon B-side) from stereogum on Vimeo . more at elbo.ws

Pitchfork Best Albums on The Walkmen

Album "Bows and Arrows" scored 9.2

On the heels of their stunning but occasionally diffident debut, Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone, The Walkmen offer an album that drastically improves on their previously established spaciou...

Pitchfork Best Albums on The Walkmen

Album "You & Me" scored 8.5

After the slight misstep of 2006's A Hundred Miles Off, the Walkmen enjoy a return to form on a consistently wonderful record marked by, for these guys anyway, relatively direct lyrics and simple plea...

Quit Mumbling on The Walkmen

If Hamilton Leithauser raises his children anything like he has "raised" The Walkmen's music , than he is assuredly an amazing father. In their youngest years The Walkmen were caffeine-ridden rockers that garnered attention for their seemingly endless pit of brazen energy . You loved them in the same way you love watching a kid run around after too much chocolate cake, destroying anything and everything in his or her path. But you know they can't continue like that forever. At a certain point they need to be able to eat their chocolate cake and contain themselves, perhaps over political discourse more at elbo.ws

Quit Mumbling on The Walkmen

The Walkmen released another song off their upcoming Heaven today. Off the heels of their title track , "We Can't Be Beat" is all about the necessity of the other side of perfection, and danger in not planning for and accommodating failure along the way (" Golden dreams all lose their glow") . It starts off like a lullaby, with Hamilton Leithause's recognizable warble over leisurely-picked strings before reaching a Western dirt-kicked gallop into the sunset, like a man who's lived through his convictions. Their follow-up to Lisbon is out May 29. more at elbo.ws

Quit Mumbling on The Walkmen

The Walkmen released a non-album track as the b-side to first single "Heaven" this week, and it's gorgeous. Leithauser's vocals move at a leisurely pace through inherited memories towards that damn build in the final minute that renders the last arc of the song completely afloat. The album is out May 29 on Fat Possum . more at elbo.ws

Pitchfork Best Albums on The Walkmen

Album "Lisbon" scored 8.6

The Walkmen are kings of dejection. For about a decade now, they've turned their albums into symphonies of disappointment and resentment and regret. Their specific style of indie rock is very rooted i...

covertcuriosity on The Walkmen

I've been in love with The Walkmen for some time now. more at blogspot.com

covertcuriosity on The Walkmen

If you're still waiting for the Walkmen to re-create a song like "The Rat," you might want to stop holding your breath. more at blogspot.com

covertcuriosity on The Walkmen

Now that it's officially upon us, here are ten more for your summer soundtrack. more at blogspot.com

covertcuriosity on The Walkmen

Yes! SXSW is right around the corner, March 14-18. more at blogspot.com