The Anticipation Station
Is it more of the same or a new direction for The Walkmen?
New York based indie group The Walkmen formed in 2000 when members of The Recoys and Jonathan Fire Eater decided they weren’t happy with their current projects and came to the conclusion that they should form a new band. The result of that decision is The Walkmen. Their distinct sound comes from their penchant for vintage instruments such as the upright piano.
The Walkmen’s debut album Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone was released in 2002 on StarTime International and was greeted by positive reviews. Critics loved the sound of the upright piano as well as front man Hamilton Leithauser’s vocals. Perhaps the most commonly praised thing about the album was that The Walkmen weren’t scared of what people think. They’re going to play their music whether or not people like it, so get used to it.
After the success of their debut album, The Walkmen upped the ante with Bows + Arrows. This album blew critics away for the most part, making many “Album of The Year” lists for 2004. However, not everyone loved it. Rolling Stone in particular criticized the band for being too scattered. Others called Leithauser’s vocal performance uninspired. Instead of improving upon the retro sound that The Walkmen so obviously use as an influence, they seemed to wallow in the sound, never really seeming to pick themselves up.
It would seem that The Walkmen were unhappy with their third release, A Hundred Miles Off, because only five months after its release the band released their fourth album Pussy Cats. However, neither album grabbed the critical acclaim that had come with their first two offerings. Both garnered reviews that ranged from bad to mediocre to somewhat positive. The main agreement among most of the critics, though, was that The Walkmen were repeating the mistakes they made on Bows + Arrows, but in more frequent fashion. Leithauser’s vocals were just short of actually conveying the feeling of the lyrics, and musically the retro sound wasn’t being improved upon.
Upon first listen to a few of the tracks on The Walkmen’s latest release You and Me sounds pretty much the same as everything else they’ve recorded. The tracks are bogged down in vast amounts of reverb and muddy distortion. However, there is some enjoyment to be had here, as some of the tracks feature great drumming and some highly enjoyable guitar riffs.
Rather than going the standard route for distribution of their latest offering, The Walkmen opted to go for a charitable release of You and Me through indie music website Amie Street. The album was available exclusively online starting July 29th for $5 and all of the proceeds from sales on Amie Street went to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Posted by Cory Roop on Aug 18, 2008 @ 7:00 am
