Album Review: The Walkmen

I'm not a fan of The Walkmen. Yes, they have some good songs, especially "The Rat" and "Little House of Savages". However, I judge bands on the quality of their albums. After all, even bands like Blind Melon and Golden Earring were able to make a few decent songs. It's tough to listen to an album by The Walkmen from beginning to end. There's a great disparity in song quality. I'm also not a fan because I saw them earlier this year at the 9:30 Club. The show was pretty crappy. The lead singer struck me as a frat guy. Very annoying. I figured I was done with these guys. Not so fast, my friend! (Get it? Lee Corso? College Game Day? Anyone? No? Fuck you guys) I just listened to "Pussy Cats" starring The Walkmen, a song-for-song recreation of Harry Nilsson's 1974 album Pussy Cats. Since this album isn't officially being released until October 24th, I wanted to chime in before Pitchfork either deems it genuis or "shit sandwich".

First, background on Harry and his album, compliments of Wikipedia and the magic of Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V:

"1974 found Nilsson back in California, and when John Lennon moved there during his separation from Yoko Ono, the two musicians rekindled their earlier friendship. Lennon was intent upon producing Nilsson's next album, much to Nilsson's delight. However, their time together in California became known much more for heavy drinking and drug use than it did for musical collaboration. In a widely publicized incident, they were ejected from the Troubadour nightclub in West Hollywood for drunken heckling of the Smothers Brothers. Both also caused property damage during binges, with Lennon trashing a bedroom in Lou Adler's house, and Nilsson throwing a bottle through a thirty-foot hotel window.

To make matters worse, Nilsson ruptured a vocal cord during the sessions for this album, but he hid the injury due to fear that Lennon would call a halt to the production. The resulting album, Pussy Cats, which may charitably be described as "uneven", was a shock for listeners who knew Nilsson as one of the best singers of his generation. In an effort to clean up, Lennon, Nilsson and Ringo Starr first rented a house together, then Lennon and Nilsson left for New York."

Okay, back to my review. The opener "Many Rivers to Cross" features The Walkmen's lead singer at his best. Bluesy, sometimes snarling, he delivers a nice rendition of this Jimmy Cliff song. Following this is a great version of Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues". [Warning: Gratuitous indie rock references coming up. James, you may want to skip to the next paragraph.] Ian Svenonius is a guest vocalist on this track and the duel vocals add to the chaotic quality to the cover. Ian was in Nation of Ulysses and The Make-Up (both referenced by Art Brut during their Top of Pops list the other night). He's currently in Weird War, a local band featured in the Burn to Shine DVD, which Jason just let me borrow.

Another stand out track is "Save the Last Dance". It's a beautiful and heartfelt song. "Loop De Loop" is a raucous live track with great horns, maracas, and kazoos. It's also more evidence The Walkmen are slowly becoming a Mariachi party band. At least, I hope they are. The album ends with a truly great cover of everyone's favorite rock oldie, "Rock Around The Clock". Bill Haley would be proud. The only real clunker on the album is "Black Sails".

Damn, I really need to be more concise with these stupid reviews. Let's cut to the chase, shall we? Rock Club Album Rating: 7.3.