The Walkmen
You & Me (Gigantic)
By John S.W. MacDonald
Published: September 29th, 2008 | 9:00am
In 2004, The Walkmen proved they were more than just an over-hyped second cousin to sorely-missed Jonathan Fire*Eater — a band with whom they shared three members. The rapid canonization of their sophomore release, Bows + Arrows and the triumphant lead-single, "The Rat," freed the quintet from its lauded resume. Suddenly, fans could praise Hamilton Leithauser's lazy-eyed tenor without mentioning manic Fire*Eater frontman Stewart Lupton in the same sentence.
Of course, the Walkmen had only crated a whole new slew of demons to live up to. "The Rat" became the new monkey on their back. The band's 2006 LP, A Hundred Miles Off, and its rushed follow-up, Pussy Cats — a reproduction of Harry Nilsson's record of the same name — both failed to move the story ahead. Shifting between punk rave-ups and organ dirges, Hundred Miles revealed a band scrambling for ideas. Leithauser sounded exhausted, his once-towering voice straining for the rafters. Now — 11 years after Jonathan Fire*Eater's major label flame out, and four years after Bows + Arrows — the Walkmen have released the best album of their career, and certainly one of the best of 2008. Unlike previous outings, You & Me seems bound by a single, wholly organic, aesthetic impulse. The Walkmen's best attributes — Paul Maroon's piercing, reverb-drenched guitar; Matt Barrick's festive time-keeping; that drowsy, cavernous organ — have been paired with supple touches of horns and strings. These 14 songs have a relaxed, lived-in quality about them — nothing is forced, no note wasted. The Walkmen sound like they could do this all day.
But the real star here is Mr. Leithauser, whose voice has returned to its blustery, whiskey-worn self. Gone is the tension and stress so evident on Hundred Miles. As he does on much of the album, particularly on the ravaging "In the New Year" and "The Blue Route," Leithauser chronicles youth’s sad twilight — those post-college, pre-marriage years when all those good times and long nights begin to take their toll. "My friends and my family, they're all asking of me, how long will you ramble?" Leithauser screams on "In the New Year." "I've lived in a suitcase for too long," he wearily admits on "Seven Years Of Holidays (For Stretch)." Somehow, Leithauser finds a balance between a bitter, laconic Dylan, and Sinatra at his most sentimental. He's getting old, but not without a fight.
Which, it seems, is exactly what the Walkmen are doing. Most bands say their piece long before the fifth record — but not these private school boys. The Walkmen are just getting started.
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Issue #13
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