Pussy Cats Starring the Walkmen
Record Collection, 2006
rating: 4/5
reviewer: jspicer

Two albums in one year! The Walkmen are slowly heading into Ryan Adams territory. A Hundred Miles Off even came close to bombing like half of Adams' catalogue. Perhaps The Walkmen were just stuck in a rut. After so many expectations to make another Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone (or even a vamped up version of Bows & Arrows), the same ol,' same ol' of A Hundred Miles Off just stuck in so many people's crawls. Somehow remaking a cult favorite capturing the drunken voyeurism and debauchery of Harry Nilsson and John Lennon's most infamous time (the "lost weekend") has become the vehicle to forgetting every bad move The Walkmen have made in 2006. That's a lot of pressure to put on Pussy Cats Starring the Walkmen, but unlike New York brethren Alex Rodriguez, The Walkmen deliver in the clutch.

But why Pussy Cats?

This is the easiest question to answer, especially if you've ever given the original recording a spin or two. There's camaraderie, sincerity, and ego to everything contained in the Nilsson classic. Alcohol became a demon for hair metal gods and unfulfilled musicians, but Nilsson was the last of a dying breed: those who drank to be at their best. No one will ever top the antics and talent of Dean Martin with a drink in their hand, but as the days of the sloshed bard have all but died, it's a comfort to snuggle up to Pussy Cats Starring the Walkmen and catch the wafting smell of rum. And while The Walkmen haven't expanded or improved on the classics, they've managed to channel their inner drunkard to recreate every ounce of gin-soaked emotion the original recording has to offer.

The Walkmen aren't asking you to choose their updated Pussy Cats, but rather to celebrate their spirit in an album that brims with heart and soul. They capture the heartbreak and longing of Lennon-through-Nilsson with album opener "Many Rivers to Cross," and continue to ride those powerful coattails right on through the dramatic darkness of "Black Sails" and the sad piano waltz "Don't Forget Me." But tugging at the heartstrings through cover songs is nothing new. Any downtrodden faker can belt out the most gut-wrenching classic if they've got the talent. It's the more up-tempo numbers (and oddly, the covers Nilsson and Lennon recorded) that reveal The Walkmen's true grasp of Pussy Cats. "Rock Around the Clock" combines '70s fuzz and '50s spunk that even Bill Haley could still dance to. The playfully raucous "Subterranean Homesick Blues" brings to life the Bob Dylan tongue twister with a chorus of bumbling vocals and party music.

Pussy Cats Starring the Walkmen more than makes up for the lackluster A Hundred Miles Off. Even if it's a straight lift of a cover album, so what? The Walkmen prove themselves to be worthy torchbearers to Harry Nilsson's brand of tequila sunrise pop-rock. Going back to Everyone Who Pretends, it's not hard to connect the dots from The Walkmen of then to the band of now, jumping head-first into an album 30 years old and seldom heard – it's the same wild piano tinkering, lung-draining crooning, and unlimited energy. Pussy Cats may not mark a new chapter in the tale of The Walkmen, but it dispels the myth that the band are nothing more than a one-trick pony, even if the Nilsson/Lennon epic is just a predecessor to The Walkmen sound. Too many indie acts forget their roots, but The Walkmen, proving they are truly are grounded in the moment, round the bases in style, as A-Rod must settle on how to spend his $250 million salary as another year passes by.

1. Many Rivers to Cross
2. Subterranean Homesick Blues
3. Don't Forget Me
4. All My Life
5. Old Forgotten Soldier
6. Save the Last Dance
7. Mucho Mongo
8. Loop de Loop
9. Black Sails
10. Rock Around the Clock

A Hundred Miles Off
Record Collection, 2006
rating: 3/5
reviewer: jspicer

How apropos a title for The Walkmen's return to CD racks. The band that brought us a blitzkrieg of hellfire and brimstone in the shape of steely guitars, haunting organs, and punch-drunk vocals has cast its shadow a hundred miles away from the sounds that echoed throughout Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone and the underappreciated Bows and Arrows. Gone are the days of feeling winter's cold grasp or spring's warming hand emitting from their music. Gone are the nights of drunken debauchery and heartbreak, as Hamilton Leithauser accompanied your pounding headache with the pounding drums of "I'm Never Bored." What's left is the shell of what once was and the outline of what is to come – whether it's a beautiful butterfly stretching its wings or a beige moth ready to devour through old rags in fits of hunger and hysteria remains to be seen. What we do know is this: A Hundred Miles Off is yet another evolution for The Walkmen, and what you make of it will most likely determine whether or not you plan on sticking it out with the band through thick and thin.

The story of The Walkmen has always been a tale of two bands. There's the desperation burning both ends of the candle ("The Rat," "Wake Up," and "My Old Man,") and the calm employing slow guitars and moaning organs ("We've Been Had," "French Vacation," and "No Christmas While I'm Talking"). These contrasts cease to exist on A Hundred Miles Off. Where's the anguish? Where's the cool under pressure? This is not the band prepared to drink off the latest love-gone-awry. This is not the band willing to wail to the jukebox, pouring their hearts into every word. It's one thing to expand your sound, to try something different. It's another to completely abandon ship to see what sinks and what floats. Cream may rise to the top, but so can shit.

Taking in the Creole country stomp of "Louisiana" would have many believing that the cream has floated higher than the shit. This whimsical, carefree version of The Walkmen is fun. Factor in the fantastic horn interludes and ragtime piano and yet another Walkmen classic has been born. Charging from the rear is "Tenleytown," the quickest, hardest-hitting, punkiest song The Walkmen have ever created. In a three-minute flurry, A Hundred Miles Off is able to shake off most of the stench. The easygoing "Brandy Alexander" helps the cream further distance itself from the sewer-dwelling tracks with a rock beat and a country attitude. The shit, however, isn't ready to sink just yet. "All Hands and the Cook" is just a boring rehash of the desperation The Walkmen once carried around with heads held high. The disjointed guitars coupled with Leithauser's out-of-range vocals is just a cheap reproduction of what the band did so well with albums one and two. The warped pop-rock of "Lost in Boston" is a lame attempt at a friendlier "Little House of Savages," and as if on cue, Leithauser once again forgets how to belt out his signature wail, using it in all the wrong places.

As for the rest of the album? Sadly, it's just the maligned sections of Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone and Bows and Arrows. The battle between the cream and the shit ends in a perpetual give-and-take, but it's the positives of A Hundred Miles Off we will remember in the long run. "Louisiana" is destined to become a live hit, and "Emma, Get Me a Lemon" has potential to become a cult favorite for The Walkmen's legion of fans. The album may not be the landmark smash or breakthrough many were banking on, but some good will come of this. Whether the backlash causes the band to refocus or the praise creates a vacuum wherein The Walkmen will never escape remains to be seen. It's just a travesty that there isn't a Howard Cosell or a Gordon Solie to call the play-by-play of what will continue to be a highly contested match between sinkers and floaters.

1. Louisana
2. Danny's at the Wedding
3. Good for You's Good for Me
4. Emma, Get Me a Lemon
5. All Hands and the Cook
6. Lost in Boston
7. Don't Get Me Down (Come On Over Here)
8. Tenlytown
9. This Job is Killing Me
10. Brandy Alexander
11. Always After You ('Til You Started After Me)
12. Another One Goes By

Bows and Arrows
Record Collection, 2004
rating: 2.5/5
reviewer: leveer


Thanks Saturn. Your ad for the apparently smashing, successful ION horseless carriage introduced me to the Walkmen, and we've had a reasonably successful working relationship since then. Their sound was a unique take on the garage-revival that swept the land two years ago, and I happily consumed and enjoyed it. Sure, after a while (longer than with most bands, I might add) it wore a little thin, but you can't expect every album to be a timeless classic. So, Walkmen, you planted yourself at or near the top of the surging pile of similar acts.

So, why'd you make almost exactly the same album again? Okay, a few tracks have some cool new facets to them, like the newfound angularity and growls of "Little House of Savages" and the flamed piano and woodblocks that drive "New Year's Eve." And the rhythm section keeps rock-solid beats coming. But, that's damning with faint praise, boys. We all loved your wails and chamber-y indie rock, but its time to move on. In fact, this is a plague endemic to all indie rock. Some people get free passes, like the Shins who write amazing pop songs with lyrics even I enjoy, and usually I couldn't care less. The Wrens are too varied to convict so easily, and I doubt the Strokes have any plans to change their winning formula. Sadly, you, the Walkmen, don't get such a wide berth. To stay relevant, you've gotta keep the "Wow!" moments coming, and you didn't muster nearly enough. You made a pretty decent album that will probably spread your name a lot wider than your superior-by-virtue-of-chronology debut, but I know I'm staying put.

That goes for the rest of you slacking bands, too. I'm not too worried since each successive year seems to bring more and more innovation, but I'm a little disappointed at this product from such a promising outfit. I'm not writing the Walkmen off just yet, but this is a genre that you can't afford to stay in one place and hope to keep an edge on the competition. They've definitely lost theirs, though.

1. What's in It for Me
2. The Rat
3. No Christmas While I'm Talking
4. Little House of Savages
5. My Old Man -
6. 138th St.
7. The North Pole
8. Hang on Siobhan
9. New Year's Eve
10. Thinking of a Dream I Had
11. Bows and Arrows