Albums Of The Decade - 96. The Walkmen - Lisbon

96. THE WALKMEN - LISBON
In the year of 2016, I took a trip to Lisbon a few days before Christmas, during a three month long sabbatical stint, between moving continents - Asia to Europe - a mammoth step. I fell in love there, made a great accomplice also, drank cask-loads of wine, spent time looking at the water and witnessed a pigeon fucking up eating my pizza; as a seagull deservedly took away the crust.

The Walkmen, just on the turn of the decade, managed to craft a 1950's style homage to this most luscious of cities using horns and mariachis, amongst other dis-harmonic strings. Hamilton Leithauser plays on the binary oppositions of feeling fractured and repaired at once - and that's been the story of the last 10 years for me, especially the former.

At the time of writing, I'm currently listening to Heaven - the 2012 follow-up to Lisbon and it's more of a full-bodied work, than the stripped down nature of this aforementioned modern classic. The Walkmen, prior to this in decades past I'd seen as a support band, and occasional headliner on the live circuit. But with this installation into Spaghetti Blogonese's  hallowed Top 100, they're officially seen as outright champions.

Records of 2010 - 32. The Walkmen - Lisbon

Records of 2010 - 32. The Walkmen - Lisbon

This is fucking ace. That's all I've got to say. Tim, I can't put it any better than this:

"The specific brand of desperation that the band conjures is miles away from, say, the throbbing, dread-laced depression of fellow dapper New Yorkers the National. The Walkmen are more theatrical and unwound than that-- they're the guys out in the middle of the street, screaming up at the sky, begging to know why everything always falls apart." --Tom Breihan, Pitchforkmedia, September 2010--

Okay, I'll say some words. The Walkmen sound comfortable here. There's something lovably rosy about Lisbon. Is it the mediterranean idea of living there? Is it his gruff voice? Nah mate. I just gone and promised you, it's the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbZUpLbDgLo