March 2004

The Walkmen: Bows + Arrows

Having enjoyed The Walkmen' s first album, "Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone," I was excited to find "Bows + Arrows" on sale in the Princeton Record Exchange on a weekend trip to visit Grandpa and Bigfoot. I mean, something has to hold my rock appetite over until the new Modest Mouse album comes out in April.

At any rate, my impressions of The Walkmen in their first album is that they are a band that is primarily defined by their influences. It's obvious that they'd listened to a lot of Joy Division and the Pixies (at least one song had a beginning easily mistakable for a Pixies song). And Bob Dylan seems to have had a profound effect on singer Hamilton Leithuaser. I'm not saying anything is wrong with these things. In fact, hearing the music created by those who obviously appreciate such great musicians is far better than having to endure Linkin Park sing about how they hate their mom because she won't let them stay out past 10 on a school night, or whatever.

Upon hearing "Bow + Arrows" for the first time I said to myself, "still a band playing to their influences". My initial reaction was that it sounded like old U2. And I mean old. Like War or October or even older. This is particularly noticeable in some of the drumming, especially towards the beginning of the album. And to be fair, the vocals on "Little House of Savages" seem to be like somebody imitating Bob Dylan imitating Bono.

But the more I listened the more I thought I was wrong, or at least missing a lot of the story. Sure, it's still fair to say about The Walkmen that they've created a sound from elements of Joy Division, the Pixies, old U2, and of course that whole Bob Dylan-as-an-indie-rocker vocal thing. But there is nothing wrong with emulating what is good just because it's good. But such criticism may be the result of an attitude towards music that refuses to accept reinterpretations or emulations of other, older sounds. Not all good music has to be ground-breaking. I think it's awesome to think that this is what might have happened had these bands got together and cooked up some rock.

Still, I think the Walkmen do a fine job of defining their own sound on "Bows + Arrows". This is an album that sounds so much more original than their first, which could be a bit derivative at times. I like the very raw and lo-fi sound of The Walkmen. A lot. They are better at that than most indie rock bands. The way this band plays their instruments makes it clear that these guys are here to rock and rock hard. They play with intensity, though it is by no means polished. They have the intensity of Interpol without the production values. They have the raw lo-fi sound of Modest Mouse without quite the same level of insane intensity. You can clearly rock around town listening to this, but the end result won't be with an urge to destroy things, maybe.

On "Bows + Arrows" it's easy to see that The Walkmen have developed as a band. Their songs are much better written and rock at a level much closer to 5 than before (Level 5 is the highest level, as defined by difficulty in Nintendo Excite Bike). Some of the songs retain the almost too precious indie rock/folk/pop sound from parts of their previous album. This is easily attributable to the fact that there is often an organ or a pandemonium present (I'm assuming this is an actual, though obscure, instrument instead of some dude running around creating havoc). It's a wonderful thing to hear in indie rock. But many of the songs flat out rock, with long sweeping U2esque chord changes that make you ready to rock out. "The Rat" is like this. As is "My Old Man" and "The North Pole".

Oh, and of course most of the lyrical content seems to revolve around being fucked over by some crazy indie rock chick. But I have no problem with that. What urban asshole can't identify with that? In fact, it's pretty much the best possible topic for good indie rock. After all, who wants to hear a Sea & Cake song about going to the zoo? Actually, I kind of do. Though maybe the circus would be better. No, make it the zoo. And can a panda eat some kid alive?

To sum up this exercise of entertaining myself with my own wit, I have to say that "Bow + Arrows" is a terrific sophomore album. After their first album I had my doubts, but "Bows + Arrows" proves to me that The Walkmen are a quality band that will probably continue to get better with every release.