The Walkmen will release their seventh album, Heaven, on June 4th through Fat Possum/Bella Union. The album title, cover art, and release date come several weeks after the group completed Heaven with producer Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, The Shins, Band of Horses).
“You do everything you can to sound different, but in the end you always sound like the band you are,” frontman Hamilton Leithauser said at the time. “We’ve done a lot of rock in the past, and Phil has made the new stuff rock really hard.” Guitarist/pianist Paul Maroon also spoke highly of the production: “There can be something brittle about our sound. He made it just a little bit warmer, a little bit stronger. When I play it in my car, it sounds strong, which I love.”
Also revealed was that Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold sings harmonies on two songs on the album, one being “No One Ever Sleeps”. That all members of The Walkmen are parents now seems related to their maturation process. “I’m very proud of what we’ve done. We’ve stayed friends and those friendships have grown,” said bassist Peter Bauer. “We have survival experience and real love that children generate in your life.”
Here’s a video I took of a track off Heaven, “Your Southern Soul”, when the band performed for free in Hoboken on 10/16:
MP3: The Walkmen – We’ve Been Had
Can’t wait for this. It’s about time they lived up to ‘The Rat’ and sounds like this might have the potential to do that.
Fingers crossed…
It doesn’t. It’s easily their worst album. I was incredibly excited too, but when I got my hands on it to do my own review I was crushed. Instead of writing it up as a album review I wrote it up as a ‘Dear John,’ letter.
I haven’t heard this album yet. Is it really that bad?