The Walkmen - Heaven

It's a fantastic album. Best of the year so far for me. (Better than Dr. Dog somehow, I know scary).

Incredibly varied. Catchy. Relevant.




But that's par for the course for them. Like the National they've really hung on to the idea of growing up, and they do it damn well.

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They'll be at Tip's Sept. 22nd.

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I saw them a few months ago at One Eyed Jacks, really great show.

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but I really like old walkmen:

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Not new Walkmen?

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The Walkmen a decade ago, when they started out as young, hard-drinking New Yorkers out for a good time on 2002’s Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone. On Heaven, they’ve left that behind for lives that that are quieter, straighter, and a lot scarier. They’re fathers now, and there’s so much more to lose. “Remember remember / all we fight for,” Leithauser sings in the song’s closing moments, turning a personal devotion into an anthemic rallying cry.
“Dad rock” is an epithet used by snarky people looking to denigrate bands that conform to rock tradition. (It also takes those dastardly dads down a peg or two.) But Heaven is a dad-rock record in a different, truer sense. It’s an album of big adult themes: the weight of responsibility, the realization that romantic infatuation is fleeting and probably bullshite, the power of fidelity and loyalty to outlast momentary sensation and passion. And it dispenses with them in an ordinary, everyday way, like taking out the trash or changing the baby’s diapers. For The Walkmen, heaven is a place where the momentous has become mundane, and vice versa.

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I enjoy the Walkmen a lot because not only has their evolution been consistent, but it's natural. They don't go far out of their way to make the music they always have.

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Agree that its up there with You and Me.

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Probably their most complete record. But it's not all THAT much better than the rest. Their body of work is incredibly good.

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I enjoy these guys because they make good music and I feel like I've grown up with them.

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Bingo. Any guy in the 27-34 age range can probably feel the same way. I know I do.

The Walkmen seem to put out quality album after quality album. While Lisbon is my favorite of theirs, I do love Heaven. After a few listens its one of my favorites on the year.

Dude, I know this topic has been beaten to death, and radius clauses are the enemy, but if your boy can get the varsity's booking to look like this, I'll shite.

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Their body of work is incredibly good

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Absolutely. To me, they have never made even an average record.

I will say that, at times, it is tough to go back and listen to their older stuff because of the growth. Sometimes it's almost like the previous records are irrelevant b/c they've moved on.

Has anyone ever checked out the Jonathan Fireeater stuff that some of the band did before forming the Walkmen?

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"Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me..." is almost too angsty. It's good to rehash those feelings sometimes (and when you're feeling particularly angry), but it's unnecessary most of the time. And I think the band would agree.

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I think they opened with this song at the One Eyed Jack's show last year. Still one of my favorite songs by them. I guess you were referencing the whole album though.

"We've Been Had" never gets old to me

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Has anyone ever checked out the Jonathan Fireeater stuff that some of the band did before forming the Walkmen?

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Love it.

And Doc, I know it's a long shot but that's the type of booking that would make the varsity THE music venue in BR.

On a side note, anyone remember the spanish moon booking Man Man, Blitzen Trapper, and Fleet Foxes all in one night way back in the day? In hindsight, how baller would that show have been had the Fleet Foxes actually been able to make it?