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Lead single “In the New Year” does well to sum up the theme of loneliness that permeates throughout The Walkmen’s fourth studio album. The song feels written as if it were a letter to a lover who is late in returning to the narrator’s side.
Lyrically, “New Year” and all the songs on “You & Me” play like the soundtrack to a somber night of drinking at a run-down bar. The stories told are simple, but this assists their forceful resonance.
Frontman Hamilton Leithauser tackles his subjects in several manners: with dark lamentation on horn-heavy ballad “Red Moon,” with mock-optimism in the strained shouts of, “I know that it’s true/It’s going to be a good year” in “In the New Year.” Here it’s as though the emphatic cries of the chorus are meant for Leithauser alone as he tries to convince himself that his lost lover will be back soon.
These beer-soaked words are backed by an approach to raw garage rock that adds layers through an eclectic arsenal of instruments. In addition to the standard guitar-bass-drums formula, The Walkmen implement string and brass sections, as well as an organ and vintage upright piano. The result sounds like someone took hipster favorites Arcade Fire, threw them in the clubs Tom Waits would have drunk at in the ’70s and told them to drop that artsy stuff and just rock.
That sort of bravado is necessary as Leithauser and his bandmates play each song – ballads and catchy hits alike – with a sense of swaggering characteristic of throwback rockers. While other retro bands like fellow New Yorkers The Strokes are marked by irony and a single-heavy repertoire, The Walkmen have delivered an album that feels complete and sincerely emotional.
Grade: B+
Grade: B+
