Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 18/09/06
Label: Record Collection

Musically, The Walkmen are onto something. Theirs is a twitchy hybrid of drunken piano-blues and cantankerous art-rock that's just frisky and malevolent enough to invite comparison with early Strokes records. Of course, fans of Jonathan Fire Eater, the band that spawned The Walkmen, would argue that The Strokes are mere JFE copyists. Either way, there's plenty to admire in The Walkmen's rattling rock and bleary waltzes.

But you've already guessed the problem with this band: yeah, it's the singer. Hamilton Leithauser spends most of The Walkmen's third album making the kind of sounds you'd expect from Rod Stewart if you woke him suddenly in the night. As a result of his strangulated mewls and caterwauls, "A Hundred Miles Off" is at times very difficult to listen to indeed. It might be worth politely pointing out that Leithauser was not the singer in Jonathan Fire Eater.

He was, however, the singer on The Walkmen's heart-stopping 2004 single "The Rat", which so raised expectations for this record. So what the hell happened? The indications are that Leithauser has been listening to too many old blues and Dylan records, and concluded that there's no great need to sing in key all of the time (or even any of it). If you've got a particularly distinctive and interesting voice, this applies. But there's a reason why covers of Dylan songs are often more popular than the originals.

Let's get back to The Strokes. If much of "A Hundred Miles Off" suggests "The Strokes gone wrong", it's maybe worth remembering that The Strokes have gone wrong themselves. To be fair, this record probably isn't as painful a listen as the atrocious "First Impressions Of Earth", but then, what is? We're in 'faint praise' territory here. When that Strokes record came out, there was a funny moment when you realised Julian Casablancas sounded that way not because he was drunk but because he wasn't drunk. What's Leithauser's excuse?

During the early part of "A Hundred Miles Off", songs such as "Emma, Get Me A Lemon" and particularly "Good For You's Good For Me" are strong enough musically for the vocals to be tolerable. However, as it wears on, the sequencing of the tracks replicate the sound of the band losing interest in the face of Leithauser's wailing. The only good thing about the latter part of the album is the title "Always After You (Till You Started After Me)".

You know, these New Yorkers probably do have a great record in them. But it's an instrumental one.

    by Niall O'Keeffe