325) The Walkmen - Bows + Arrows

Recently I’ve not known any of the requests, amateur I know.So a request to review The Walkmen was another one I had no clue about so usual reading time, ah Hamilton Leithauser is the lead singer, I had his solo song A 1000 Times on my phone, good song but had no idea he was The Walkmen’s lead singer.I like when I put a review out and someone tells me something I don’t know about the record or artist, I’m not fourteen anymore so accept I don’t know everything about music and people (quite a lot actually) know much more than me, but now I know who the lead singer of The Walkmen is.

And Hamilton Leithauser is the important thing here. Key to liking The Walkmen is you must like Leithauser’s voice kind of rough and ready but with enough emotion to keep you listening, a mix of Strummer and Dylan, shouldn’t really be a singer but it works.

The Rat is the place to go on this record mainly to hear drummer Matt Barrick in action as he does not let up for the four minutes and this propels all of the band to a frantic relentless performance and whilst you are thinking bloody hell that was good go to Little House of Savages where they do it all over again.

No Christmas While I’m Talking sounds in every note and word that it’s about to end which means you want to hear each line of the song and 138th Street sounds as if it was knocked out first time in the studio, but it works.A piano led ballad, Hang On Siobhan, picture it being played in one of those American movies from the 80’s played by a man in a bar in the early hours of the morning, you would love to nurse a drink listening to this.Thinking of a Dream I Had is distorted thrashing guitar from start to finish with a fine beat going on, nearly as good as The Rat, high praise.The title track they sound as if they just walked in a room and were each told to make a noise but make it a subdued noise and somehow pulled it off.

There are no catchy choruses on this record but it’s one of those records, you know what I mean, yep, one of those that slowly gets under your skin.

7/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: The Rat