The title of LP #7 from The Walkmen ought to give you some idea of how the band is feeling these days. They’re happy, and why shouldn’t they be? On the back of the album, there is a picture of the band seated on a couch with their kids, all of them looking the part of the proud father, and certainly looking much more grown up than when they first emerged as a group in the early 2000s. Priorities have changed for the NYC 5-piece, they’re no longer the young post-punkers they once were, and that seems to suit them just fine.
An album based on domestic bliss and middle-aged happiness may not appeal to many of us at first, but there’s something very refreshing about Heaven. It’s as if, after years of determined hard work to make it, The Walkmen can finally take a few moments and enjoy where they are now. Mind you this doesn’t mean they phone anything in. The band’s collective good feelings are conveyed to the listener, which makes this an endlessly happy listen, and a great little summer record as well. All 13 tracks bear the trademark sound of Hamilton Leithauser’s distinctive lead vocals and some seriously tight instrumentation to back everything up.
Heaven definitely shows off a tidier iteration of The Walkmen. The slight instability and craziness of their first few LPs has for the most part disappeared. This might alienate some longtime devotees, but really it’s a chance to hear the band in a new light. Opening track ‘We Can’t Be Beat’ is a great example of this. It’s a breezy, country tinged song featuring Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes, which finds Leithauser asking for ‘A life that needs correction, because no one loves perfection’. The next two songs ‘Love is Luck’ and ‘Heartbreaker’ are both upbeat and propulsive, and they address the uncertainty of the future with aplomb rather than the trepidation many of us feel when thinking about what’s next.
The middle of the album is a good deal quieter than the rest, but ‘Southern Heart’ and ‘Song For Leigh’, which Leithauser wrote for his one-year old daughter, are both worth a listen. Heaven ends on a high note with the driving force of ‘The Love You Love’ and the title track, as well as the pleasant drift of ‘Dreamboat’, the closing track.
The Walkmen are a much more confident bunch this time around. All the uncertainty about exes and missed opportunities that used to mark their work is now gone, instead Heaven exudes a measured level of happiness and hopefulness. The modern independent music scene is flush with sad bastards who are all too willing to tell us how shitty they have it, so it’s nice to hear someone address contentment so openly. It’s certainly one of the more positive records to be released this year, perfect for hot summer days, and sure to turn any frown upside-down.
Grade: B+
Not one negative comment about the album but it only gets a B+??