the walkmen, you & me
14Jul08
Coming August 19 is You & Me, the new album from the Walkmen. It is the best album of their career, and certainly one of the best albums I have heard this year. Start to finish, it’s a stunner. Best song of all is “In the New Year,” which I listened to approximately infinity times over the weekend. You can stream that track from Hype Machine here. And you should.
I hate the phrase “return to form,” but I expect plenty of people to use it when referring to this album.
I completely agree.
Can’t wait for the Bowery show, I’ve never seen them play in NY.
http://www.boweryballroom.com/calendar/show/1674/
I had lost all hope for this band after their last album (or two). Is there anything on this as good as “The Rat”? Because that song was a powerhouse; best thing they’d ever done, as far as I’m concerned.
“The Rat” does indeed stand alone, but the song I linked in the post is right up there (IMO).
Is there anything on here as good as “The Rat”? Um, yeah, how about “On the Water,” “Red Moon,” “The Blue Root,” “Canadian Girl,” or “Postcards from Tiny Islands” among a few others? This is their most consistently good album from start to finish.
“New Year’s Eve,” along with “The Rat” are my two favorite Walkmen songs, though I consider myself in Daniel’s camp; i.e., I haven’t paid much attention to them after Bows and Arrows. However, if the song linked above is in anyway linked spiritually or whatever to “New Year’s Eve” (and, judging from the title, I see how it’s possible), then perhaps the album is similarly linked to Bows? We’ll see… in any case, that track is killer.
Don’t forget Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone. A lot of the lo-fi moments on You & Me that hum like they’re taking place well past closing time are reminiscent of that album. Although it doesn’t blaze as hot (and mesh so nicely with Fox’s MLB TV spots) as “The Rat,” there will probably never be a Walkmen song that hits me quite like “We’ve Been Had.”
Also haven’t paid much attention to this band since Bows and Arrows, but would like to point out that in their somewhat recent Daytrotter session, they played nothing but Leonard Cohen covers. So they’ve earned back a few points in my book.
hehehehe
Wow. I listened to this on an extremely long plane ride. Helped make the time pass a little more quickly.