4Q Magazine

The Walkmen - Lisbon (Review)

by James Carney on 22.09.10


Lisbon
(Fat Possum, 2010)

Lisbon finds The Walkmen standing (for the most part) more steadily with their characters’ situations. Comfort is permitted to a degree and there’s slightly less of the wailing into the ether or at the pigeons of ‘In the New Year’. Opener, ‘Juveniles’ is more skipping down the boardwalk than staggering down Main Street. It‘s a bit of a departure from the meandering understatement of You and Me, and foreshadows a lot of what to expect from the record. ‘Angela Surf City’, this year’s ‘The Rat’, is one of the more anonymous tracks Lisbon has to offer. Though that might seem a contradiction in terms of a band with such a distinctively swaying sound of catharsis and resignation, and particularly considering the dynamics of the song itself, its swell and propulsion, all being in the right place, there’s still an integral element of the heart that doesn’t beat like it used to.

That being said, as soon as you start to get the impression that Lisbon consists purely of anthems on autopilot the details and embellishments of the record begin to make themselves apparent. The Walkmen are a band that know how to make percussion interesting; the drums alternately click, and pulse, and propel, and pound. They mirror or contrast the sentiment of Hamilton Leithauser vocals, and correspond to his enthusiasm or despondency. ‘All My Great Designs’ puts the hyperactive side of drummer, Matt Barrick, to spectacular use and ends up a minor masterpiece built from the rhythm up.

The mariachi horns in ‘Stranded’ should by all means feel tacked on; a post-production extra as steroids to the melody; but they don’t. It’s hardly subtle in this instance, and maybe even a tad melodramatic, but it has a particular sense of time and place, and lyrics like “I’m stranded, and I’m starry eyed” somehow manage not to come across as maudlin.

‘Blue as Your Blood’s wistful croonery just manages to bypass sappy, and the clicking, railroad percussion is a further testament to Barrick’s approach and the band’s sense of restraint where necessary. ‘Woe Is Me’ is a functional, properly jaunty (!) Walkmen track; and ‘Torch Song’ is both ballroom waltz and waltzing-arse-over-tit-off-the-stage waltz, complete with killer hook and doo wop choir.

Though the unhinged and blatantly anthemic moments don’t fly as well as Bows + Arrows, and the album’s flow isn’t quite as cohesive and world-unto-itself as You & Me’s meandering loneliness, Lisbon is a very much an affecting and charming Walkmen album with subtly ornate and effectively integrated arrangements.

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