MUSIC: The Walkmen

it seems like with a little effort, I imagine that you can get every track from the new Walkmen album (titled "A Hundred Miles Off) from the web (but you should buy it anyway!). I was going to post something about this last week but wanted to fully digest the album before officially giving a thumbs up/down on it. Typically, when I enjoy an album as as much as I did "Bows + Arrows" the follow-up is inevitably a disappointment. I think that B+A encapsulated the nervous energy I was feeling at the time of its' release. Check out my favorite track from that album:

::: The Walkmen - The Rat

So now comes "A Hundred Miles Off"..... what are we to expect? In my mind, it's a little more constrained, and dare I say, happy? It's as if that underlying twitch/energy is a little more opaque. See for yourself.

::: The Walkmen - Another One Goes By
::: The Walkmen - Louisiana
::: The Walkmen - Emma, Get Me A Lemon

If you listen closely, even the more upbeat song of the three, "Emma, Get Me A Lemon", doesn't have the punch of "The Rat", or "Little House of Savages", or any of a number of tracks off of B+A. Anyhow, so what's the end result? I f'ing love the album.... it's good, it's different, and different is good. It took me a good week to find the right mindset for it, however.

Buy albums by the Walkmen here, especially if you like the last three songs.

Also, an excellent blog called So Much Silence has an entry with a live Washington DC show by The Walkmen which was part of NPR's live concert series. For those of you who are interested and what not.

[Photo credit goes to Iguana Jo, check out his Flickr page]

Tags: walkmen, music, macktronic, emma, lemon, art, culture, indie rock, the rat, hundred miles off, cannonball!