Walkmen – Lisbon LP NEW Discount

The Walkmen – Lisbon LP 

NEW. SEALED.

Fat Possum Records

“Don’t get heavy, let’s be light,” Hamilton Leithauser sings on “Woe Is Me,” and that seems to be the Walkmen s creed on Lisbon. the Walkmen were more than heavy on their previous album, the gorgeously moody You & Me, and it’s hard not to read the more upbeat attitude they have here as a response. This time, they dance on their troubles instead of drowning their sorrows — although the organ on album opener “Juveniles” warms like the first sip of wine. But while the mood is lighter, things are never completely sunny in the Walkmen s world. “Victory” sounds like a winner’s brash cheer, but bears the sting of being second place. “Woe Is Me” turns a pity party into an actual party, making reminiscences about a girl who was “my not so long ago” into one of the band’s most immediately appealing songs in some time, while “Angela Surf City” shoots the curl of a difficult relationship’s tides, ebbing and cresting like Bows + Arrows “The Rat.” These songs anchor Lisbon s hazier, sadder moments, of which there are plenty: the title track closes the album with a dreamy remembrance that echoes You & Me s brooding travelogue, minus that album’s desolation; “Blue as Your Blood” and “Stranded” provide Lisbon’s broken but ever-romantic heart, filled with transporting stories of black-eyed girls and waltzes among broken glass. Best of all is “While I Shovel the Snow,” which once again proves what a rich muse winter is for the band. When Leithauser sighs “There’s no life like the slow life,” it’s another potent Walkmen motto: Lisbon, like the rest of their music, is meant to be savored, the fullness of its songs allowed to develop over many listens.