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By: Jake Krolick
In August 2008, The Walkmen churned out a new chapter in their musical careers, presenting us with their fourth and perhaps most intelligent and beautiful album to date. You & Me (Gigantic) features a different version of singer Hamilton Leithauser than we've heard over the last eight years. Leithauser must have woken up one morning and thought it was time for a change after screaming hard, brutal attacks like "The Rat" (Bows + Arrow) or howling his detestation on "All Hands and the Cook (A Hundred Miles Off)" the evening before. Thank god for a bit of reflection on his young, hell-bent and impulsive lifestyle, because what he created is a clear, concise re-working of the ideas presented on The Walkmen's previous efforts.
What makes You & Me so amazing is its newfound maturity that listeners can now clearly hear in vocals that are no longer screamed. That maturity is also heard in the way Matt Barrick's drums explode through from the start of this album. This is still our dirty, bloody Walkmen, but now with a surprisingly grand and gentler approach. You & Me is an album that belongs in its own category high up on a shelf next to the good china. Aptly titled, the album offers listeners an assessment of their own lost loves reflected through clouded, distant memories, faded photographs and old home movies. The Walkmen have characteristically embraced sounds from decades past filled with wistfulness and a weighty tone without really landing on one specific artist or time. On You & Me, they have reinforced this unique music with reverb-filled guitars, slow-building songs and plenty of vintage pianos and organs that crackle and flicker like decomposing slideshows.
However, Leithauser's formerly strong foothold in the area of scorn has now changed to sincere remorse. On "I Lost You" he laments, "We'll drink up the hours before the dawn… I'll miss you when you're gone." Even on tracks like "The Blue Route," where Leithauser repeatedly shouts, "What happened to you?" he sounds more worried than sour. The brass section on "Red Moon" is careful and nuanced, filling the song with rock lavishness similar to what Van Morrison captured on "Into the Mystic." The lighthearted organ riff on "In the New Year" provides a stellar balance to Leithauser's newfound tenderness, as all of the band's musical greatness comes full circle with guitars that buzz with feedback.
In the end, its Hamilton Leithauser's voice that steals the show on You & Me, exuding charm like the prodigal hero riding his horse out into the lonely world's sunset.
Here's The Walkmen doing "In the New Year" live this past summer.
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