It's always nice watching a band that you like grow. I latched onto the Walkmen after seeing them on Lettermen back in 2004-05 when they performed "Little House Of Savages" off their album "Bows + Arrows" and loved the energy and lead singer Hamilton Leithauser came off to me as an angry Rod Stewart, if Rod Stewart had chosen a punk route instead of a kitschy "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" detour through the seventies. "Bows + Arrows" was a fine album, if not overwhelming, and showed some promise. What followed was a more folksy affair and less awe inspiring "A Hundred Miles Off" and an album with some strange covers that didn't go over very well "Pussy Cats". Thinking all that promise may be lost, they ended up releasing a gorgeous album full of gracious mystique with "You and Me" in 2008. It showed a band refocusing and playing on strengths they had all along, disjointed percussion, moody guitars lines, a grave site organ, and of course, Leithauser, whose vocals had gone from an angry young man to more of new millennium crooner. Songs like "The Blue Route", "In The New Year" and "Four Provinces" showed a band combining those strengths and showcased even more promise with their dark candlelit songs of quiet, drunken despair and total intimacy.
So that leads us to the sixth proper album from the Walkmen, "Lisbon". The Walkmen continue a winning streak with a set of songs that are just as engaging as on "You and Me". The title was inspired to some trips the band took to the Portugal capital of Lisbon, and you can feel some of that Portuguese romanticism dripping through these tracks whether it be the huge, ethereal, and lazy horns on "Stranded" that back Leithauser as he works his way to a chorus "I'm stranded, and I'm starry eyed." or the liquid horns that sound like the belong on a street corner in Lisbon in "Follow The Leader".
Those two songs don't mean they've totally abandoned the dark alley streets of the urban life we've come to admire these guys "torch songs" to come from (which oddly, the beautiful understated "Torch Song" is one of the great offerings on "Lisbon"). Opener "Juveniles" continues in the same drunken musical vein as the Walkmen's prior album with Leithauser crooning "You're one of us or one of them", perhaps a call to what a lot of people feel about the band you're either with them or not. And "Blue As Your Blood" works the same guitar lick over and over while creating this immeasurable wall of sound behind it. It's production value is so warm and inviting that you can't help but get lost in it's immediate aura. The Walkmen have done sad and lonely so well on "Lisbon" and "You and Me" that they've got the formula down now that these feelings lyrically and musically comes off effortlessly. It's become their second hand nature.
What's great and a bit different about "Lisbon" is that musically it is reaching for new heights, a huge sound that isn't trying to encompass an arena or a stadium, but a sound that can be both big and intimate at the same time. With experience under their belts they've mostly succeeded at doing this here and that is the biggest difference I can see between this and "You and Me". But with that, they've unfortunately lost some of the mystique that kept you engaged and bringing you back to that album. It's a trade off, but it's essential if you want to see a band grow and "Victory" may just be the calling card for those ambitions. Lyrically, Leithauser is still the bummed out crooner fans have come to adore. "Throw another dime in me my friend/And I'll sing a song I know for thee" he starts off on "Stranded". We wouldn't have it any other way Hamilton.
Grade: A
JHO Picks:
Angela Surf City
Blue As Your Blood
Stranded
Woe Is Me
Torch Song
The Walkmen - Stranded by Weallwantsomeone
The Walkmen - Woe Is Me by IndieRockReviews
The Walkmen - Blue as Your Blood by AMIM
The Walkmen - Juveniles by antwake
Source: http://www.jhostation.com/2010/09/new-music-review-walkmen-lisbon.html
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