{"id":26097,"date":"2012-04-20T07:26:57","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T05:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jensunmack.dk\/wordpress-3\/?p=26097"},"modified":"2012-04-20T10:32:06","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T08:32:06","slug":"heaven-up-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jensunmack.dk\/wordpress-3\/heaven-up-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Heaven up here"},"content":{"rendered":"

P\u00e5 The Walkmen’s amerikanske pladeselskab Fat Possum’s hjemmeside er nedenst\u00e5ende skriv, der fort\u00e6ller lidt mere indg\u00e5ende om det til juni kommende album Heaven<\/em> samt New York\/Philadelphia\/New Orleans-bandet’s egen l\u00f8bebane, netop blevet lagt op.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe detachment you can feel throughout our younger records is gone. \u00a0We felt like it was time to make a bigger, more generous statement.” \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

When describing the new album,\u00a0Heaven, the Walkmen lead singer Hamilton Leithauser portrays a band hitting maturity, comfortable in its mastery, after a decade together. \u00a0Adds guitarist Paul Maroon, \u201cwhen you\u2019re starting out, you\u2019re sitting there trying to come up with a big idea, but after a while, you learn about the process of writing. You learn about your friends in the band and how they work best.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It’s been ten years since the Walkmen made their debut album,\u00a0Everybody Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone. \u00a0 Ten years since they mixed the lovingly recorded analogue tapes down to the cheapest CD burner they could find. Ten years since lead singer Hamilton Leithauser snapped guitarist Paul Maroon\u2019s arm in a celebratory wrestling match. Ten years since critics attached them to a New York scene they never wanted any part of.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

But when Leithauser sings \u201cWe Can\u2019t Be Beat,\u201d on the opening track of their new album, he means it, like Cool Hand Luke getting up off the floor for one more round. \u201cThe world is ours,\u201d he declares. This time, he may be right.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

This spring, the band played a series of 10th anniversary shows that demonstrated how far they have outstripped their peers: two sets over two hours, no filler, rapturously received. \u00a0In contrast, fellow graduates from New York’s celebrated rock revival class of \u201902 have burned out or faded from view.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Walkmen are the great New York band of their generation, and in\u00a0Heaven, they have delivered their third killer album in a row. Although Leithauser argues that \u201cour biggest accomplishment is just being here,\u201d they are making the best music of their career and filling their largest venues yet. Their spot at the top of the bill at May\u2019s Crossing Brooklyn Ferry festival, curated by The National, demonstrates the respect in which they are held by the current wave of bands making music in the city.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn The New Year\u201d, a standout track on their fourth record,\u00a0You & Me, implies that at one point there was pressure to quit: \u201cMy friends and my family, they are asking of me, how long will you ramble, how long will you still repeat?\u201d Lauded as a stunning collection of songs, beautifully arranged, the 2008 album revitalized their career.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Lisbon, released two years later, confirmed that trajectory, winning five star reviews for its short stories and spare, Sun Records sound. The clanging tones of Paul Maroon\u2019s Rickenbacker Capri 360 and Gretsch Streamliner set the 1950s mood, as Leithauser channelled Orbison and Sinatra, in all their melancholy defiance.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

On last year\u2019s tours with Arcade Fire and Fleet Foxes, the Walkmen formed enduring friendships \u2013 and resolved to write a song that would make them headliners, once and for all. \u201cThere\u2019s a kinship,\u201d says multi-instrumentalist Pete Bauer. \u201cYou feel like someone else is out there taking music as seriously as you\u2019re taking it. You realize that you\u2019re a lifer.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

So when Fleet Foxes producer Phil Ek approached them, asking if they\u2019d like to make a record with him, they traveled to the studio he uses in the woods outside Seattle for the most intense recording sessions they had ever experienced. \u201cHe was relentless,\u201d says Maroon. \u201cAnd in the end, you can hear the difference.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have never been on better behavior,\u201d agrees Leithauser. \u201cWhen Phil had an idea, we would be \u2018OK, let\u2019s try it.\u2019 That\u2019s not who we are! But we came up with a sound that we love.\u201d Although the chime of Maroon\u2019s guitar is unmistakable in the cascading arpeggios of \u201cSong For Leigh\u201d or the driving metallic riff of \u201cHeartbreaker\u201d, the setting is fuller, the production lush.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThere can be something brittle about our sound,\u201d Maroon says. \u201cHe made it just a little bit warmer, a little bit stronger. When I play it in my car, it sounds strong, which I love.\u201d On \u201cWe Can\u2019t Be Beat\u201d, Leithauser is Dion and his bandmates The Belmonts, singing pitch perfect doo-wop. On \u201cNo One Ever Sleeps\u201d, Fleet Foxes vocalist Robin Pecknold plays Don Everly to Leithauser\u2019s Phil, supplying a low harmony at once classic and contemporary.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLove Is Luck\u201d started out as an attempt to replicate the spacious, reverberating tone of Jamaica\u2019s Studio One in the formative days of The Wailers. \u201cPhil said \u2018I hear this as a rock song,\u2019\u201d remembers Leithauser. \u201cThen Matt came up with the drums and it started sounding like the Pixies: a big, loud, bombastic thing.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The one song that the Walkmen insisted on, over Ek\u2019s objections, turned out to be the track that pulled the record together and gave it a title. \u201cOur children will always hear romantic tales of distant years,\u201d sings Leithauser. \u201cDon\u2019t leave me, you\u2019re my best friend. All of my life, you\u2019ve always been.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

After 10 years, the Walkmen have everything that a great band needs. Leithauser is a mature singer of phenomenal stamina who can trade \u201cThe Rat\u2019s\u201d raw anger for the yearning of \u201cSouthern Heart\u201d in a beat. Drummer Matt Barrick can pummel ferociously and drop down to Buddy Holly\u2019s tramcar click. Bauer is a consummate sideman, effortlessly switching from guitar to farfisa to piano as required, or trading instruments with bass player Walter Martin, who has also written his most resonant lyrics yet.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

All five members of the band have kids now and if the impact of parenthood is hard to pin down in a single lyric, there is definitely a new openness and emotional honesty to the songs. \u00a0 Most importantly, the old gang mentality has deepened, becoming something worthwhile and lasting. \u201cI\u2019m very proud of what we\u2019ve done. We\u2019ve stayed friends and those friendships have grown,\u201d says Bauer. \u201cWe have survival experience and real love that children generate in your life.\u201d Heaven is a definitive statement of purpose and commitment, from a band at the peak of its powers that is finally winning the recognition it deserves.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

– Andrew Purcell<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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P\u00e5 The Walkmen’s amerikanske pladeselskab Fat Possum’s hjemmeside er nedenst\u00e5ende skriv, der fort\u00e6ller lidt mere indg\u00e5ende om det til juni kommende album Heaven samt New York\/Philadelphia\/New Orleans-bandet’s egen l\u00f8bebane, netop blevet lagt op. \u201cThe detachment you can feel throughout our younger records is gone. \u00a0We felt like it was time to make a bigger, more … L\u00e6s videre Heaven up here<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n