After a decade together, The Walkmen sound like a band thoroughly at ease with themselves. Early on in their career, they were sucked into the vortex of hype around The Strokes and Interpol, by dint of their New York base more than anything, but Heaven is proof that they have outlasted both of those beleaguered bands – creatively if not commercially.
Where early albums like Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone and Bows & Arrows were tense, knotty and difficult, redolent of whiskey-soaked long nights of the soul, there’s a warmth and confidence to Heaven – an album made by a group of men who are older, happier and simply better at what they do.
Some of that could be attributed to producer Phil Ek, whose CV includes albums with the likes of Fleet Foxes, The Shins and Band Of Horses – acts that have benefited from his crystal-clear production. Anyone returning to The Walkmen after years away might be shocked to find that the grit and grime have gone, but it’s part of the band’s natural trajectory, and it befits these fine songs. In any case, Hamilton Leithauser’s distinctive drawling croon is present and correct, and surprisingly versatile – tender on the spare folk ballad ‘Southern Heart’, rousing on the punchy ‘The Love You Love’ and ‘Heartbreaker’, impassioned on the emotionally-wracked title track. In fact, Leithauser is so good that Fleet Fox Robin Pecknold will probably struggle to pick out the backing vocals he contributed on two tracks. He’s simply a footnote on what is a consistently excellent record.