“This is a great album - I am saying it now and I will be saying it for a long time.” - JeffTweedysFatStomach
#18.
The Walkmen - You & Me (2620 Points, 42 Votes, Four #1 Votes)US Chart Position: #71
UK Chart Position: n/a
Charting Singles: n/a
SOMB Says: I saw a band by accident once at some oysterfest or something a few years ago. They didn’t make much of an impression at first; from what I could tell they were just another Brooklyn-based new new wave band, nothing horrible, but nothing special either. Except for the singer. His clothes were far less trendy than his sound, but he was singing as if they were gonna murder his family if the crowd wasn’t entertained, with the voice I’d later hear David Eggers describe on a scale from one to ten. To paraphrase, “If ten is the perfect pristine and soulless singing of an American Idol contestant, and one is the incoherent wailing of a madman, this guy’s a two.” No one’s face should get that color red.
Some time between then and now, not really sure when, they ditched the new wave sound and mellowed out. The new sound is older, more subtle, more subdued. There’s a bit of a romantic stoicism in the lyrics and the tone on this record that’s refreshing these days. Drums are brushed instead of pounded, guitars rumble and roll politely, and singer Hamilton Leithauser appears to have found the off-switch on that wild shriek from years back, lending handsome, if a touch hoarse, vocals to songs that aren’t in a real hurry to reveal all their secrets.
Which makes it sound as if The Walkmen went out and made their folk album so they can head off to XRT to go die. Not quite the case. The deeper you get into the record, the stronger the intensity sitting just beyond grows, until you feel it just about to break, and Leithauser’s face is once again that familiar shade of scarlet.
Songs never dip into true chaos, but give way to a lush agitation. Songs like Red Moon and Canadian Girl are pure beauty, horns swelling to provide the most subtle, most gorgeous melodies, but The Blue Route and Postcards From Tiny Islands show some force; Guitars that started off quiet and echoey muscle their way to the front, the cymbals that dusted by earlier begin crashing rapidly and violently, and the easy croon becomes that ferocious oysterfest howl, and just as quickly and smoothly, it quiets back down.
Even seemingly simple and quiet songs build the drama slowly until your soaking in it. New Country begins in what you assume to be a snorefest, just voice and guitar, until the tension builds to the brink, climaxing in triumphant vocals that make you want to take on the world. On the closer If Only It Were True, a rare wave of feedback frames Leithauser’s strained howls in not rage but heartbreak. It’s a carefully executed moment that could have been overbearing and obvious but hits just where it needs to.
Sure, they’re not playing anything as overtly intense as The Rat anymore, but in reality this band is as alive as ever, and the angular rhythm of earlier days isn’t only intact, it still drives them. But instead of throwing everything out at every second of every song, they’ve gained confidence in their songs and in their performance, and gained the knowledge that true drama ebbs and flows, that a shriek is so much more dramatic coming off a murmur. -
Duff. Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Albums Lists: “Bows and Arrows” (#30 of 2004)
Ranked Highest By: suckeredyou, Mike Schank, JeffTweedysFatStomach, Tito the Builder (#1)
Also Ranked By: demoncleaner (#3), arkin, BigUps (#4)
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