pith…

With You & Me, The Walkmen built one of the most complete albums of 2008. It’s of a piece, a whole cloth constructed from its simple constituent elements, like a scarf wrapped about the neck and head. Each song’s exceedingly simple elements – the almost off-key vocals, icicle guitar riffs, basso profundo base, basic-chord synthesizer and resonant, mechanical percussion – build moody tunes that are more than the sum of their parts. The mix is just right, with each component pushed to the front, equal on an atmospheric, often restrained, plane. On past releases, The Walkmen have let themselves explode a bit, as with “The Rat” but, across all of You & Me, they’re a band of considerable restraint. The songs are often coiled, ready to strike – like that scarf would jump right off and get all up in somebody’s face, spewing a load of frustration you didn’t know you hid, or jerking tight, angry, right around your own throat – but they don’t. There’s no explosion, no release. To what end? Any release is as at least as temporal as joy in the landscape of You & Me. It all passes. Just keep moving.

Moving on, in time and person, is a consistent lyric image and the album moves well across the whole, from the solid opener through an essential instrumental interlude to the third track where mood and quality is sustained to the end. It’s an album that asks to be heard as a whole, in its arranged order, as much as any I’ve heard for some time. It’s a casually polished piece of subdued chamber rock, where the highs are never too high and the lows aren’t all that bad. It is best appreciated by somewhat alienated folks, people who know they’re as much a part of “out there”as they are “in here,” wherever that might be, apart from their immediate, or even intimate, surroundings. It’s an appropriate soundtrack for passing through the quotidian urban world or shutting out, though not forgetting, that same work-a-day world. Winter is its season. In tempo, mood and existential outlook, it’s a close cousin to The National’s Boxer. If there’s a single shard of lyrical pith, an emotional center to the whole, it’s probably: “And into the fire / I’ll tell you I love you.”

My favorite 2007 albums:

1. The National – Boxer
2. Josh Ritter – The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
3. Patty Griffin – Children Running Through
4. Tegan & Sara – The Con
5. The Snake The Cross The Crown – Cotton Teeth
6. Grinderman – Grinderman
7. Pela – Anytown Graffiti
8. Amy Winehouse – Back to Black
9. John Doe – A Year in the Wilderness
10. The Ike Reilly Assassination – We Belong to the Staggering Evening
11. The Twilight Sad – Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters
12. Feist – The Reminder
13. Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha
14. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer
15. The Broken Family Band – Hello Love
—- Frightened Rabbit – Sing the Greys
—- Electrelane – No Shouts, No Calls
—- Albert Hammond, Jr. – Yours To Keep
—- Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare
20. Phosphorescent – Pride
—- The Broken West – I Can’t Go On I’ll Go On
—- Loney, dear – Loney, Noir
—- Menomena – Friend and Foe
—- Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
25. The New Pornographers – Challengers
—- Dogs – Tall Stories from Under the Table
—- Thee More Shallows – Book of Bad Breaks
—- Kings of Leon – Because of the Times
—- Les Savy Fav – Let’s Stay Friends
30. Malcolm Middleton – A Brighter Beat
—- The National Lights – The Dead Will Walk, Dear
—- Liars – Liars
—- Blonde Redhead – 23
—- Future Of The Left – Curses
—- Various Artists (Bob Dylan covers) – I’m Not There Soundtrack
—- Okkervil River – The Stage Names
—- Radiohead – In Rainbows
—- Black Lips – Good Bad Not Evil
—- The Ponys – Turn the Lights Out
40. A Place to Bury Strangers – A Place to Bury Strangers
—- Miranda Lambert – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
—- The Apples in Stereo – New Magnetic Wonder
—- The Shins – Wincing the Night Away
—- Kate Nash – Made of Bricks
—- The Hives – The Black and White Album
—- Magnolia Electric Co. – Sojourner
—- Camarada – King of the Dark
—- Joe Henry – Civilians
—- Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
—- Shocking Pinks – Shocking Pinks
50. Windmill – Puddle City Lights
—- Deer Tick – War Elephant
—- The Avett Brothers – Emotionalism
—- Pinback – Autumn of the Seraphs
—- Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
—- Palomar – All Things, Forests
—- Bats for Lashes – Fur & Gold
—- Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
—- Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
—- Willowz – Chautauqua
Low – Drums and Guns
Shout Out Louds – Ill Wills
Parts & Labor – Mapmaker
Band of Horses – Cease To Begin
Angels of Light – We Are Him
Handsome Furs – Plague Park
Bruce Springsteen – Magic
The Clientele – God Save The Clientele
Figurines – When the Deer Wore Blue
The Future Kings of England – The Fate of Old Mother Orvis
Gogol Bordello – Super Taranta!
Bright Eyes – Cassadega
Deerhunter – Cryptograms
Bowerbirds – Hymns for a Dark Horse
We All Have Hooks For Hands – The Pretender
The Pigeon Detectives – Wait For Me
Dinosaur Jr. – Beyond
Minus the Bear – Planet of Ice
Iron and Wine – The Shepherd’s Do
Illinois – What the Hell Do I Know
Editors – An End Has a Start
The Maccabees – Colour It In
Mekons – Natural
The Kissaway Trail – The Kissaway Trail
Thee Stranded Horse – Churning Strides
Centro-Matic – Operation Matricide (EP)
Beirut – The Flying Cup Club
Jason Isbell – Sirens of the Ditch
Gravenhurst – The Western Lands
White Rabbits – Fort Nightly
Castanets – In the Vines
LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
Akron/Family – Love is Simple
Super Furry Animals – Hey Venus!
Jacob Golden – Revenge Songs
Bear Colony – We Came Here To Die
Frog Eyes – Tears of the Valedictorian
Amandine – Solace in Sore Hands
Fujiya & Miyagi – Transparent Things
Jacob Golden – Revenge Songs
Caribou – Andorra
Battles – Mirrored