I’ll preface this by saying that after A Hundred Miles Off, I probably couldn’t have been any less excited about a new record from the Walkmen. So, with no expectations going into the band’s new You & Me LP, I’m a little shocked that it’s quickly become one of my favorite albums of ‘08. There’s no “The Rat” here, but that’s alright; the majority of this record is made up of woozy, intimate, often heartbreaking slow jams about fucked up relationships, and Hamilton Leithauser’s worn, damaged growl is more affecting than ever. Highlights include opener “Donde Esta la Playa,” “On the Water,” “Red Moon” (oh man, the horns), “Four Provinces,” and first single, “In the New Year,” which can be heard at the band’s myspace, or here:
And here’s an early version of “Red Moon,” taken from an NPR session the band played last year:
mp3:
The Walkmen :: The Waltz (Red Moon) Live on NPR
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elsewhere:
Daytrotter posted a new session from Austin’s Sunset, featuring a couple tracks from their excellent new record, The Glowing City.
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Hipster Runoff offers up the definitive exhaustive analysis on just “wtf is blog house?”
The Glowing City is fantastic, such a great companion to Bright Blue Dream.
love it all, brohouse
this blog house stuff is crazy. really right on, but maybe too much– in that, now that i’m aware, i don’t wanna hear about it much more.
moderately alt bros are the kewlest.
walkmen…album of the year, indeed. what a turnaround.
My sentiments on the Walkmen exactly. This album, however, is magnificent.
I agree: I was such a huge fan of theirs in college…but the last album + a horrible show from that era where Hamilton was just yelping the whole time threw me off. This new album is a total surprise!
they kind of seem like east coast frat boys to me. not my thing.
chris, i totally co-sign this. i was surprised when i listened to the album and realized it was pretty great, and then, i realized that both everyone who pretended to like me and bows + arrows are both very good albums, too.
the fact that you and me is so good is like a surprise you shouldn’t have been surprised about, if that makes sense.
This is my choice for album of the year for sure. It is just a classic album- especially love the whistling that picks up the melody in ‘on the water’ and I LOVE the pulse of the tempo in ‘postcards from tiny islands.’ Love it
the down-on-A-Hundred-Miles-Off crowd has a point, but the problem with that album has a lot more to do with the recording than the songs. the songs are great.
the Walkmens are also FAR from frat boys. I think you meant preps. Very drunk, artsy preps. Who make incredibly bad ass music.
Color me for one unsurprised that their new one allegedly rocks.
i heart the walkmen. :) i’m really not surprised that this album rocks. my roommate played it for me the other day and i instantly felt better.
A Hundred Miles Off was a collection of great songs recorded terribly. Every bit of the Walkmen’s wonderful analog texture was buried in high-end noise. Just listen to the drums on an earlier track like “Revenge Wears no Wristwatch” and then flip over to any track on A Hundred Miles Off–the drums go from sounding like they’re in the room with you to sounding like their bleeding out of somebody’s headphones next to you on the subway. I’ve never understood why they couldn’t hear the difference back then, but who cares? This new album was masterfully produced; it’s the best thing I’ve heard in years. They are the Hemingway’s of Indie Rock–drunken, laconic, and somehow able to transform the simplest instrumentation into songs greater than the sum of their parts. A real fucking band.
amen to that
^^ nice blog!! ^@^
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^^ nice blog!! thanks a lot! ^^
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The glowing city was great in deed.
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