Words: James Dyke

The Walkmen have been around longer than most people realised, well over a decade now. Sixth studio album Lisbon is a far reach from previous Walkmen efforts, especially from ‘everybody’s fave track’: ‘The Rat’.

Lisbon is relaxed, ‘Juveniles’ is an upbeat opener with a repetetive guitar chime backing the oh so familar vocals of lead singer Hamilton Leithauser. ‘Angela Surf City’ is the standout track, energetic, angry and very ‘The Rat’-ish (apologies for the continual comparison but let’s face it, everyone will be comparing it…), but ‘Angela’ is as crazed as Lisbon gets. ‘Follow The Leader’ is a disjointed mess, and seemingly far too psychadelic for The Walkmen to pull out. The middle of the album runs very much into each other, throwing up increasingly similar, repetetive guitar and percussion patterns over-shadowed by melancholic vocals. ‘Blue As Your Blood’ offering the least drowsy soundtrack. Lisbon here has potential to go over the listener’s head, requiring several listens to even relate to the listener. The final third, slow to almost complete stop, highlights include ‘All My great Designs’, a personal favourite featuring a haunting piano and vocals combination, as the remainder of the album slowly peters out.

Lisbon is a good album, not great, and it won’t set your Autumn alight as much as say Deerhunter, or Sufjan Stevens. Although don’t let it pass you by - certainly an album for the fans.

7.0