No, the Walkmen did not hang up their sneakers after everyone declared “The Rat” to be one of 2004’s best singles. And yet, when they came back in 2006 with the wildly underrated A Hundred Miles Off, nobody seemed to notice, probably because there was nothing like “The Rat” there. There is nothing like “The Rat” on their latest release, You & Me, either. The Walkmen have evolved, mellowed, even—gasp!—matured.
They are still characterized by heavy reverb, Hamilton Leithauser’s Dylan-on-cough syrup vocals, and Matt Barrick’s wild, inventive drumming. But where Barrick’s drums were once propulsive and threatening, they’ve relaxed now into a waltzing, beneath-the-surface rumble.
And where Leithauser used to bury his emotions in booze and long nights, on You & Me he seems tender and unmasked. “Only I still call you mine / Only I’m still hanging on,” he sings on “Canadian Girl,” and his voice takes on a featherweight quality he hasn’t quite hinted at before. Leithauser never bursts, never has a drunken rampage, always keeps his cool.
You & Me has subtle tensions, but they never escalate. There are a few tracks in which the band allows the pace to increase (“In the New Year”, “Four Provinces”, “Postcards from Tiny Islands”) but, as seen on opener “Donde Esta La Player,” they seem content to let their songs wobble forward without the epic climaxes of their past work.
In album highlight “I Lost You,” just before the album’s finale, Leithauser sounds exhausted: “So throw me a line, throw me a line / My hearts underneath the sod on our feet / The windows are shaking and so are my bones / The world’s going ‘round, throw me a rope.” After listening to a whole slow hour of You & Me, you might sympathize. But its consistency and subtleties rank it among the Walkmen’s best work.
