WALKMEN - A Hundred Miles Off

A solemn tribute to Louisiana, to the lands of the South, to Baton Rouge and above all to New Orleans. There couldn't have been a better opening for the Walkmen's third chapter. A fitting bow to everything that's shaped these guys, namely stars-and-stripes country-rock laced with Southern touches and punk deviations, complete with the kind of orchestral ceremony you'd expect on Thanksgiving Day; that's essentially the stylistic summary of the sound put forward by these five nostalgic American lads. Coming off a couple of commercial successes, "What's In It for Me?" and "Little House of Savages" (singles later picked up by Fox to grace the background of a well-known American TV series), the Walkmen continue their journey with Record Collection on the same wavelength as their previous records, distinguishing themselves through a greater attention to detail and instrumental texture.

The Washington band, transplanted to New York and embraced wholeheartedly only by a portion of the critics, shapes its songs with sonic structures rooted in the past, the same ones that characterized most Southern coast rock bands some thirty years ago. Guitars fossilized on the same four chords, catchy melodies, populist rhythms and the usual lyrics about love and rebellion. Everything is executed in absolute deference to the folk-rock canons of yesteryear, with traces of Bob Dylan scattered throughout the record.

The use of the Clangy upright piano thus becomes the thinly veiled temptation to gracefully recreate melodic flourishes long since extinct. Hamilton Leithauser, the band's leader, voice and guitar, sings and plays with a nod to the nation's own Bob and to New Jersey's most famous boss, particularly the raw early Springsteen, even though his voice is much closer to that of Rod Stewart on "Gasoline Alley". No longer a kid, Hamilton rules the rest of the family with the confidence of a domineering patriarch, alternating vocal lapses into self-assurance with elegant stylistic maneuvers, with results that are often uneven; the rest of the band is made up of Paul Maroon (guitar, piano), Walter Martin (organ), Peter Bauer (bass) and Matt Barrick (drums).

It is, in any case, an excellent collective, able to wade through various murky waters and always come out clean, never overdoing it with distortion and feedback, instead sticking to the quality of raw sound, as if they were brewing homemade whiskey using nothing but century-old Tennessee techniques.

The songs are always marked by a restless energy, at times acidic and at other times delightful, dense with celebratory tom-toms and tumultuous folk-rock charges. The Walkmen's style captivates the way a Cadillac crossing all of Nevada would, its tail leaving behind that famous trail of dirt and dust; a sound that's at times hazy, where Leithauser's distinctive vocal tone isn't always easy to warm to.

Once the tributes to the homeland of old-jazz ("Louisiana") are done with, "A Hundred Miles Off" serves up a string of raucous, off-kilter rock tracks, "Lost In Boston" and "Don't Get Me Down" chief among them, along with Dylan-esque folk fusions such as "This Job Is Killing Me", never losing sight of the purely country side of things on "Brandy Alexander", and even managing to be unpredictable, especially when we unexpectedly find ourselves listening to three exact minutes of raw, unfiltered Irish-punk ("Tenley-Town"). The cover of Mazarin (Quentin Stolzfus), "Another One Goes By", is a fitting close to an overall enjoyable record.

Having made it through all twelve tracks, there's nothing left to do but compliment this little orchestra, thanking them for carrying us back, at least in spirit, to the arid expanses of the southern United States; even though there were moments of homesickness, where the urge to return home really made itself felt, the honest (vintage) rock served up by this Washington collective was always there for us, managing to reveal, especially in certain passages, the natural beauty of those places through classic, immediate rock.

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17/11/2006