Heaven

The Walkmen | Format: MP3 Music

Product Details

• Original Release Date: May 29, 2012
• Label: Fat Possum
• Copyright: 2012 Fat Possum Records
• Total Length: 47:00
• Genres:
  • Alternative Rock
• ASIN: B0085CSVJ2
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,512 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Ham and the boys do it again with a great mix of rockers and slow burners May 29, 2012

By J. Luiz

Format:Audio CD

A number of music critics have made a lot of the fact that this new album represents a mellowing of the Walkmen, now that they're all married with families, and no longer the angry young men bellowing over unrequited love. But the fact of the matter is that not every song on their early albums is as amped-up as their hard-driving classic, the Rat. They've always done a mix of upbeat rockers and more mellow slow burners. Here you get that mix again in masterful combination. If you like the hard-driving tunes, there are four in that great energetic, classic Walkmen mode -- the title song, "Heartbreaker," "Nightingales," and "The Love You Love." On the latter, you can just picture Hamilton Leithauser in concert tilting his head back, pointing the mike up at the 45-degree angle as he does, and belting out his angry, yell. (No one sings/yells better than Ham.) It's the stuff that sends tingles down your spine. Just as I did with LISBON, I was admittedly concerned about the number of slower, ballady songs, because I'm naturally inclined to adrenaline-releasing songs and I most often listen to music when I'm working out, but I was surprised at how quickly the slower songs got under my skin and gradually impressed the heck out of me. The same thing happened here, only perhaps faster. I gave this a number of listens on NPR First Listen, and was surprised I was eager to give more listens to the song where Ham just calmly sings with minimal instrumentation. The quiet, acoustic guitar plucking along that opens "Line by Line" is a perfect example of this. And the simple, beauty of a ballad like "Song for Leigh," in which Ham sings to his daughter, is impossible to resist.... The "Witch," with its heavy keyboard opening, has that eerie, otherworldly sound that they occasionally pull out as they did for "On The Water" from YOU & ME. As one more extra bonus for this album, they have Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes doing background vocals on some songs, including the great, mellow, but beautiful opener, "We Can't Be Beat," in which Ham sings about the virtues of muddled reality vs. the ideal - "I don't need perfection ... give me a life that needs correction." It's another great Walkmen album -- I'm grateful they've produced six original material albums - and hope they keep doing it for years to come. Read more ›

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Already the best album of 2012 June 2, 2012

By Vince H.

Format:Audio CD

This might be their best. I've already listened to this album a dozen times. You thought "Lisbon" was replayable, wait till you get a hold of this record. I didn't think they'd be able to top "Lisbon" but this actually might be a slight notch above it. The Walkmen should have Phil Ek produce all their records from now on. The production has that wonderful crispness and clarity we've come to expct from Ek plus the songwriting is top notch. Sorry I am a bad reviewer but this is for those who are awaiting the album or are unsure after "Lisbon" - you will not be dissapointed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Walkmen come through again... mostly June 7, 2012

By John P. Flores

Format:Vinyl

The Walkmen always seem to be just slightly off the mark from making perfect albums. This albums is no except. It's starts off so strongly and then seems to fizzle out toward the end (the exception being the album's namesake, Heaven). It's still a damn good album and I recommend picking it up.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Our crooked dreams will always glow. June 1, 2012

By Rudolph Klapper VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

Heaven celebrates the ten years since the band's debut not with fireworks and a blackout but with a picture of the band on the back cover, suited up and surrounded by their families. "It's been so long, been so long, but I made it through," Leithauser croons on opening track "We Can't Be Beat,' and there is nothing fiery or remotely venomous here, but pure contentment, even as Leithauser assures us that he wants "a life that needs correction / nobody loves, loves perfection." Perhaps Leithauser protests too much; it's difficult not to find perfection in Heaven, which doesn't attempt to expand the band's sonic collage past the impressive borders they painted on Lisbon, as kaleidoscopic and vibrant as they were. Instead, producer Phil Ek and the band would rather refine the edges and color in the blanks, all with an adroitness that the younger Walkmen would have trampled roughshod over. Ek has been content to traffic in workmanlike, midtempo indie for much of his career, and on Heaven, he applies that knowledge consummately, pulling back the curtain on the Walkmen to a tighter canvas, one that focuses on just how good the band has gotten at the tints and hues and backgrounds. It's the little things that jump out at you on Heaven: the flashpoint of synths that close out "Line by Line;" the constant, faithful bass that underlines all of the triumphant, sweeping "Nightingales;" the cavernous drum echo on the aching "No One Ever Sleeps." There's no unusual motif like the horns on Lisbon or the piano on You & Me, but instead everything coalesces slowly around Paul Maroon's flickering guitar and Leithauser, whose vocals have never sounded stronger or more centered than they do throughout Heaven.... Without Leithauser's expressive pipes, worn down over the years, more restrained and consequently sounding better than ever, Heaven is just another guitar rock record. With it, "Southern Heart" turns into a translucent web of delicate acoustic interplay and soulful vocals ("Tell me again how you love all the men you were after," Leithauser whispers) and "Heartbreaker" turns into a surf rock anthem for guys who would never surf, full of Leithauser's confident gruff: "I know the answers, to all your demands / I have no secrets."

Heaven doesn't move resolutely from point A to point B on the Walkmen Victory Tour as it does float there, sometimes leisurely ("We Can't Be Beat"), sometimes forcefully ("Love Is Luck"), sometimes melancholy ("Dreamboat"); many other times, simply happy to be there. The Walkmen have never needed to be particularly complex songwriters - "Song For Leigh," about the band's respective children, is about as straightforward a hymn as you'll find in contemporary indie - but it's their mastery of the finer edges, the contours of a song, that has made them one of America's special bands. Maroon's sparkling guitar tone twists and slinks along throughout the record, providing the narcotic riff on the title track as easily as it does a luminous shimmer in "The Witch," easing its way past Matt Barrick's thudding kit and Walter Martin's bass and distinctive organ, all deft arrangements purposed around the highlighting of Leithauser's vocals and timeworn lyrics. There's a depth to these tunes, one that comes not out of fast nights and wrecked relationships but the hindsight and experience of age; it's a well that, thankfully, seems to be getting deeper and deeper.

The band don't have to be raucous New York rockers anymore, just as much as they don't have anything left to prove after Heaven, the third in a trilogy that matches the best of any modern rock band. They've successfully grown up, far along into what should be the twilight of their career but what is, inexplicably and delightfully, a golden age. They remain proof that, perhaps, growing old is the best medicine for what ails you. "Our children will always hear / romantic tales of distant years / our gilded age may come and go / our crooked dreams will always glow," Leithauser reminds us on the titular track. It's a fitting thesis for a band that has never seemed caught unawares by what lies around the corner. In listening to Heaven, I don't feel quite so overwhelmed by the future. Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterwork in the making for a decade June 1, 2012

By R. Saldana

Format:Audio CD

After ten years of exceptional underground albums, some of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous songs ever ("Red Moon" and "Louisiana"), and one minor hit, "The Rat", the Walkmen return with their best album to date. Working with producer Phil Ek, the band has lovingly distilled all that is special about them and paired it up with some of their most accessible music to date. The result, "Heaven", is a sure contender for best indie album of the year. The stunning, unexpected opener "We Can't Be Beat" initially casts the band in a sort of Ink Spots-ish vibe, but morphs into something else, a trait found in abundance on this album, and to its benefit. Mr. Leithauser's vocals are, as ever, honest and affecting, but deeper and richer this time, and he hasn't sounder better (check out "Song for Leigh"). "Line By Line" draws you in with its hypnotic guitar intro but the real gem here is "The Love You Love", probably the most perfectly realized pop song the band has done to date. "No One Ever Sleeps" and "Jerry Jr.'s Tune" are immediately inducted into the 2:00 a.m. club of great, boozy songs. One gripe - "Jerry Jr.'s Tune" needs to be longer! I count at least four "singles" here, a solid effort from one of the best indie bands of the last 10 years. This won't be leaving my personal rotation all Summer.