The Walkmen : Lisbon

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/thewalkmenlisbon.jpg" alt=" " />While you were busy following the latest hipster Brooklyn indie music fad, The Walkmen grew up. ...
6.8 Fat Possum
2010 

The Walkmen : Lisbon While you were busy following the latest hipster Williamsburg indie music fad (garage-rock, chill-wave, shit-gaze, prefix-suffix), The Walkmen grew up.  In the early days of the Brooklyn alt-rock boom, after the success of The Strokes & Interpol priced the last remaining struggling artists out of the Lower East Side and forced them across the East River, maybe no act was as cherished as The Walkmen, who combined old-timey skill with a drunken saloon style, most memorably in 2004 breakthrough single, “The Rat” (QRO video).  But the band has been getting older & wiser since then, to the point where they’re practically the godfather of today’s Brooklyn scene, as their dress has gotten classier & they’ve played classier places, such as the Museum of Modern Art or the Guggenheim (QRO live review).  And their music has gotten classier & soberer as well, eschewing the barroom for the antiques place, less Al Swearengen’s brothel and more the fineries of Alma Garrett (for the Deadwood fans out there…).  It’s an impressive evolution to the new Lisbon, but one can’t help but miss the old Walkmen.

For many pieces on Lisbon, the instrumentation is actually reduced, largely consisting of Hamilton Leithauser’s vocals, Matt Barrick’s drums, and either guitars or keys – both sound like a harpsichord.  “Juveniles”, “Blue As Your Blood”, “All My Great Designs”, “Torch Song”, “While I Shovel the Snow” and “Lisbon” all hew to this style, which used to be the exception to a Walkmen record, but is now the rule (indeed, “Blood” sounds a great deal like “On the Water” – QRO video – from the band’s last release, You & MeQRO review).  Some of the older Walkmen can be found on songs such as “Angela Surf City”, “Victory” and “Woe Is Me”, but in more of a saloon procession than saloon stomp.  Meanwhile, (surprising) single “Stranded” brings horns to the fore in an old-time elegy, like sad N’Orleans or “Auld Lang Syne”.

The Walkmen aren’t the only Brooklyn artist to do some maturing – their kind of ‘kid brother’ White Rabbits (QRO spotlight on) made the move from the dance hall of debut Fort Nightly (QRO review) to wise man in only their second record, It’s Frightening (QRO review).  And there are those fans that didn’t make the leap with them, either.  The Walkmen’s evolution has been slower, and like pulling off a band-aid, more painful that way, as one can’t help but still listen for signs of “The Rat” in what has now, bit-by-bit, become a different band (albeit without changing any members).  Moreover, it means Lisbon just doesn’t feel as exciting, just more of the same old Walkmen that you don’t like as much as the old old Walkmen.  They’ve pulled off the generational change, which might suit older fans (and rock critics), but, as a hipster of today might say, “What have The Walkmen done lately?”

MP3 Stream: “Victory”

{audio}/mp3/files/The Walkmen – Victory.mp3{/audio}

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