Customer Reviews

Lisbon

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Unlike many of their contemporaries who decided to burn out in a temporary burst of creativity or fade away in repetitive ignominy, the Walkmen have only continued to get better. It's a bit of a surprise when you consider the band predicated their success on a piss-and-vinegar brand of youthful fire and youthful anger, that New York City vigor and rage exemplified in "The Rat," the band's best known song off their 2004 breakthrough Bows + Arrows. It's the kind of spirit that's all too easy to dissipate as the years pass, and the Walkmen, truth be told, have been no exception. But as 2008's excellent You & Me proved, the Walkmen know how to age gracefully, transforming their earlier ragged edge into a stately procession of horns, spindly guitars and powerful drum work, all anchored by Hamilton Leithauser's cracked croon. It was still the same Walkmen, as the innovative instrumentation and Leithauser's gloomy lyrics made clear, but they had found a way to take their best qualities and shift them into a more expansive sound, the kind of sound that spoke of possibilities for the future. With Lisbon, the Walkmen have realized those possibilities, but in a decidedly strange way: for the first time in years, the Walkmen seem content.

Is that really Leithauser singing "I am a good man / by any count / and I see better things to come" as a jaunty guitar line rolls along and the drums bounce in a way that can only be described as triumphant? And when he follows that up with "could she be right / when she repeats / I am the lucky one," it's a shock to the system of any long-time Walkmen fan - Leithauser seemingly at ease with himself and his girl, and the music, so often ominous and threatening, now a pleasant, upbeat mix that calls to mind rolling country sides and mountain air, not the cramped and dirty alleyways of New York City. If it wasn't already obvious, first single "Stranded" makes it quite clear the new Walkmen of You & Me are here to stay. It's a classic rock ballad, one that boasts a sort of jazz processional feel to it and revels in the lush horn textures that the band has already mastered. Add Leithauser's distinctive, soulful wail, and you have what most of Lisbon ends up sounding like: a bona fide timeless classic, the sort of song that would sound just at home in 1970 as it does in the new millennium.

There's not much rocking out on this record, although when the band does put the foot to the gas, it's vibrant - check out the surf-rock thunder of "Angela Surf City," where drummer Matt Barrick's hard-hitting style shows the Walkmen aren't all that old quite yet. For the most part, Lisbon is a game of give and take: the muscular restraint in the tense "Blue As Your Blood;" the `50s slow-dance mimic "Torch Song;" how "Woe Is Me," besides being in the running for happiest Walkmen song ever, places its sunny pop exuberance perfectly between the more down-tempo "All My Great Designs" and the lovesick "Torch Song." If You & Me showed the Walkmen becoming more comfortable in the studio, Lisbon has them becoming veritable masters of it, from Paul Maroon's shimmery, layered guitar work to Barrick's propulsive style to those Walkmen trademarks, the upright piano and Leithauser himself, whose scratchy howl sounds just as confident and assured singing straightforward love songs as it does spewing venom. When the band wants to be quiet and ethereal, they do it better than most, as on the skeletal, back room intimacy of "While I Shovel The Snow," and when they want to celebrate, they do it righteously, from "Juveniles"' joyous tones to the colorful, cathartic chorus of "Victory."

There's nothing here that will jump out at you like "The Rat" did, and upon first listen Lisbon is a surprisingly tame journey, one that doesn't latch on to you with jagged teeth that refuse to let go like their more black-and-white records. No, it's the sound of a band that knows they don't have to draw blood to get a listener's attention. Instead they can offer up a song like the title track, which builds itself up and up only to slowly disassemble itself into a haze of crisp drum clatters and a nostalgic guitar line until the song ceases with no mess or fuss or, even better, no sense of unfinished business. It's the perfect way to end the record, displaying as it does all the best aspects of the Walkmen's new persona: the vintage production techniques (this is a band that desperately, desperately cares how every little thing comes out sounding); the disciplined yet organic way the band plays off each other; Leithauser's effortless creation of a unique vibe, a specific sound that the Walkmen can now definitely claim as their own and whose distinctiveness may be matched only by the National in the realm of contemporary indie rock. Lisbon is an album from a band finally using the full palette of their talents to adapt and come out the better for it, and that's a pretty picture to behold indeed.

I thought The National had album of the year in the bag with 'High Violet', but I couldn't have been more wrong.

The Walkmen have taken a more subtle and precise approach with 'Lisbon' than their previous efforts. I can just picture them in some dim lit warehouse somewhere like mad scientists determining which note goes where and with what instrument and how loud to make each note and so on and so forth. It may not seem like that at first listen, but with repeated listens you will soon find out how much time and effort they put into 'Lisbon'. It's their most simplistic yet complex album yet. It's a well rounded mix of all the greatness of their previous albums but it doesn't feel old at all. It's as though they've figured out a way of making all their strengths feel new and refreshed.

From the ballad and first single "Stranded" which sounds like an album highlight from '100 miles off' to the intrepid title track, "Lisbon", that could have been 'Everybody who Pretended to like me is Gone's' most idealistic single, the Walkmen dazzle in every way. The opener "Juveniles" is a perfect start to 'Lisbon'. It's slow and bending lyrics sound as though they are about to embark on a journey and they want you to sit back, drink your whiskey, open your mind and let your thoughts flow. As the end of the song echoes, "you're one of us or you're one of them", you will start to question which one you are as you anxiously await the ride to continue.

There are a few faster paced songs on the album like "Angela Surf City", which will probably be the biggest single on the album just because it's more of the sound the Walkmen are popular for. "Victory" and "Woe is Me" are great emotionally charged high velocity tempo storms that crash you with promise and misery all in a matter of minutes. Other than these three songs the rest of the album sits in the bondage of haste and perseverance.

The only setback on the album is "Follow the Leader". I only say it's a setback because it seems unfinished to me. It has perfect rhythm and smooth lyrics but just didn't seem complete and it kind of halted the album with two very strong tracks before it. On the other hand, I see why its on the album. It builds up to the highlight, "Blue as your Blood". "Blue as your Blood" is the Walkmen's best song to date. As Hamilton croons "Life rolled us over like a town car/Bruised up and busted to the ground", you can feel the sentimentality in his voice. It should be the anthem for every love story, every severed relationship, every guy/girl sitting at a bar thinking about the years past, drinking their favorite drink contemplating every decision, good and bad, they've made over the span of their life. Yes, it's that good.

"While I shovel the snow" reminds me of my childhood in Chicago, thinking of times past and what's transpired since. It brought back memories I forgot I had. It's simplicity and candid emotion will bring tears to your eyes and happiness to your soul. The lines "half of my life I've been watching/half of my life I've been waking up" will make you want to go back to that childhood and slap yourself in the face, tell yourself to do something with your wretched painful life ahead. "Torch Song" and "All the Great Designs" are standouts as well. They keep the album moving at a soul binding pace. As the album digs at your every thought and bulletproof emotion, not stopping until the end of the title track, "Lisbon", hits you and makes you crave a cigar and another drink to flourish what just transpired. But you cant go on this ride just once. It's like your 12 again at six flags on a Tuesday during the summer when there are no lines...just you and the rollercoaster and you keep riding it over and over again...feeling the pain and nauseau of the rollercoaster's jolt but loving every minute of it. You hunger and crave for more. The only thing that's missing from this album is taste and scent, but if you delve hard and long enough you swear you can smell that old after shave lotion your father use to wear or taste those homemade mash potatoes your mom use to make because memories is what this album is about.

Metronomes aren't needed because 'Lisbon' doesn't follow any sort of compliance or standard, it's original and that's something you cant say much anymore about music today. 'Lisbon' brings emotion, it brings character and most of all it brings memories for The Walkmen stand in the likes of none of their peers because their greatness cannot be compared.

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"Lisbon" was my "first contact" with "The Walkmen". I recall seeing the band name before, but I never got around to actually listening to their music until a few weeks ago when through a music service I started listening to this (then just released) album. Slowly, this album, listened as a unit from start to finish, began growing on me, and before you know it, I couldn't stop! It is that good and that cohesive. (I know, in this era of genius and mixes and playlists, and disposable pop songs, "the album" as an art form is not as popular, and it's a shame, but that's another story for another day).

Some songs (Woe is me, Angela, Victory, etc) may stand out more on their own, but really, to make the most of this album, it is best enjoyed as a unit!

It is really hard to pigeon-hole this album in today's music world. After falling for "Lisbon" I went back to some of their previous work and I did notice some Dylan in the voice and some Strokes-like sound. This album however appears to be more like the distilled essence of the band.

This is definitely worth a try! Be sure to give it at least half a dozen start to end plays - it is like wine!

On the logistical front, there is a two disc edition in the UK with the eleven songs (1 thru 11 above) on the first disc, and four additional songs on the second disc. Amazon has one of those four songs as track #12 above.

The 6th release since 2002 from this East Coast band led by the addictively stunning, unique

voice of Hamilton Leithauser (think early Rod Stewart meets James Graham of Twilight Sad).

These are carefully crafted songs that move easily from near-ethnic ballads to explosive,

percussion-driven rock crescendos. Former members of Jonathan Fire*Eater, the Recoys.

Incredible is all I can say. I saw The Walkmen live on a whim (after hearing Seth from The OC say he loved them) in Seattle about five years ago and was blown away. I own all their music and just saw them live last week in Seattle on the Lisbon tour.

Angela Surf City was so good live, it made the event worth attending on its own. I love this band. I love the Johnny Cash steel guitar sounds, the "mule train" style drum beats, the funereal keyboard, and the "rough-cut" vocals.

This is as good as You and Me and Bows and Arrows -- my two favorites, and their third great album.

The Walkmen have had more false starts than the 100m heats at the Olympic Games so it a happy event to report that Hamilton Leithauser and his band of troubadours from New York have finally nailed the damn thing to the post and decided to move out of the garage. In their ten years of making music we have had massive highlights like "The Rat" one of the greatest rock songs to be pressed to vinyl, the roaring post punk hand grenade of an album that is "Bows + Arrows" and the moody incendiary magnificence of their return to form album 2008's "You and Me". We have also had some pretty poor fare to deal with not least their third album "A Hundred Miles Off" and sense that the Walkmen might have missed their big chance. So it's wonderful that "Lisbon" proclaims a very loud "au contraire" to the doubters and presents a band at the top of their game.

Not that this album has the raw power of some of their earlier work or their trademark full frontal attack, but that can be deceptive on deeper listens. Indeed "Lisbon" like the Portuguese Capital is in many respects superficially a bright affair on which we have glorious surf punk anthems ("Angela Surf City" and possibly their best song since "The rat"), surreal Johnny Cash like alt country rockers (the brilliant "Blue as your blood") and epic spiky slow burn rock ballads ("Torch song" and "All my great designs"). Equally this is more than ever an album where Leithauser vocals dominate and the singing style is now very much his own property forever laying to rest the former accusations of a Dylan copyist.

It would not be The Walkmen however if some dark undercurrents didn't come to the forefront and on the lovely and wry lament "While I shovel snow" which Leithauser sings beautifully he regrets that "half of my life I've been watching, half of my life I've been waking up". Dejection has always been a Walkmen speciality and "Woe is me" tips a nod to fellow New Yorkers the Strokes but also proves that Leithauser recent crash course in Sun Records rockabilly has paid off. "Stranded" alternatively starts off with slow horns and actually sounds like a traditionally based almost Felice Brothers style song, it is very big highlight on an album packed with them.

"Lisbon" is the Walkmen's sixth album and during the past ten years there have been times when "travelling the journey" with this band has been a difficult and questionable affair. It is because of this that "Lisbon" taken together with "You and Me" is such a triumph, indeed it worth echoing the words of the wonderful American music blog Stereogum which rightly states that "The Walkmen have gotten so good at what they do, it's easy enough to overlook the complexity of what it is they're creating." Thus in "Victory" which is a song with distant echoes of the Clash during their Sandinista era the Walkmen announce that "Victory should be mine" to which this reviewers response is "well done you've achieved it".

Download tasters - Blue as your blood, Angela Surf City and Stranded

Wow, what a fantastic record, probably their best! As usual, they wear their hearts quite plainly on their sleeves, but I guess you could say they're wearing old and quite worn smoking jackets now instead of dirty leather jackets. Or to put it more simply and less pretentiously, they're getting older, and it shows in the songs: the way they're written, sung, and played. Sure, there are still some furious rock tracks on the album, and the band sometimes gets just as carried away as they normally do even on the slower tracks (that's a compliment). But it all sounds more meaningful and beautiful and powerful b/c it's coming from musicians seemingly even more weathered by life, yet sort of at peace with what life has done to them (or, if not at peace, they at least seem to understand it better).

For instance, take one of the standout tracks, "Stranded." It echoes certain tracks from previous records (like maybe "Red Moon") in terms of using wonderfully unexpected and dramatic backing music (echoing an Italian funeral march in this case), but it's much much more potent and heart-breaking b/c you feel like they've lived (i.e., past tense) what they're saying/playing rather than still being stuck in the middle of it, even when the literal words seem to say otherwise. That slight change in perspective makes all the difference in the world, no matter how old the listener is (late 30s in my case).

So if you're new to the Walkmen, I'd say definitely start with this album: it's a great representative of their range and also very accessible. And if you just want to sample a handful of tracks, I say go for "Stranded," "Angela Surf City," "Blue As Your Blood," and "While I Shovel the Snow." They run the gamut from badass surf rock to spooky orchestral driving music to quiet-as-a-December-night confessional. And "Juveniles" is a great welcoming track to ease you into their sound (while still kinda belting you over the head in the end:-). And not to sound like a total fanboy, but I really wish these guys would get more recognition as one of the best bands out there right now.

I thought their previous album was great, but this album falls very short of the last (IMO). I can't even listen to this for more than a couple mins. I can't even say i have a song on the album i enjoy. Very disappointed in their effort on this CD.

Like I said, this album is incredible throughout. I really enjoy the fact that they maintained a sort of "laid back" sound; similar to the last album (You & Me). There are shades of some harder material on this album as well, which I definitely enjoy. I would recommend this album to anyone that enjoyed their previous album. This bands earlier works are definitely worth a listening to, if you haven't done that already. Enjoy! These guys are great live too. A real gem!

This CD is pretty good musically and vocally. With the exception of few songs a little too sleepy for me.