The Walkmen

Product Details

* Audio CD (March 26, 2002)
* Number of Discs: 1
* Label: Star Time
* ASIN: B0000634II
* Average Customer Review: based on 48 reviews. (Write a review.)
* Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,010 in Music (See Top Sellers in Music)
Yesterday: #24,964 in Music

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1. They're Winning Listen Listen
2. Wake Up Listen Listen
3. Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone Listen Listen
4. Revenge Wears No Wristwatch Listen Listen
5. The Blizzard of '96 Listen Listen
6. French Vacation Listen Listen
7. Stop Talking Listen Listen
8. We've Been Had Listen Listen
9. Roll Down the Line Listen Listen
10. That's the Punch Line Listen Listen
11. It Should Take a While Listen Listen
12. Rue the Day Listen Listen
13. I'm Never Bored Listen Listen
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Containing three former members of much-lamented New York buzz band Jonathan Fire Eater, who self-destructed before striking gold, the Walkmen seem determined not to repeat past mistakes. They marked their return with an unassuming self-titled EP and spent a meandering year on the club circuit before properly breaking this, their first full-length album, with a song loaned out to a car commercial. "Sometimes I'm just happy I'm older," sings Hamilton Leithasuer over the rolling, toy piano melody of "We've Been Had." While on the brittle, angular "Revenge Wears No Wristwatch," he whines, "I've heard it all before / I've had it up to here." But for all the dashed expectations and lingering regret, the Walkmen still look unblinkingly forward. The music here is intense and inventive, combining garage rock, cabaret pomp, and carnival melodies, while still sounding oddly tuneful. Fans of U2 and the Cure should investigate the Walkmen. --Aidin Vaziri
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
Brilliant, just brilliant., January 17, 2003
Reviewer: Aron Hsiao (Salt Lake City, Utah United States) - See all my reviews
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Real music fans know that the best music--whether we're talking Einstuerzende Neubauten or Thelonious Monk or Sonic Youth or Prokofiev--won't give it all up on the first listen. Some of the true greats (say, Neubauten) may not give it up for the first fifty listens. Some people don't have enough patience for the greats. Some people want hooks, they want them big, they want them simple, and they want them NOW.

Thankfully, The Walkmen aren't offering you a whole hell of a lot of grocery store whipped-cream hooks on your first listen, or maybe even on your second or third. But if you're a music lover, you may detect on that first listen that there's some serious music going on here, and that you need to give The Walkmen more time--a few more spins--before you make any judgments. If you do, you'll be rewarded.

Once you begin to really hear it, this is a beautiful, beautiful disc, one of the best in my collection. The artistry here is incredible. Check out the production and the composition work in Stop Talking or the deceptively simple, almost undetectable word-hook in That's the Punch Line that you'll find yourself repeating days later without at first knowing where you got it. And We've Been Had is an alternative anthem if ever I've heard one.

In terms of comparisons to other artists... I don't really think that's a fair question to ask. Sometimes I think I can hear everything from Radiohead to early Malaria to David Bowie to the Pixies here, but that doesn't mean that the influences are obvious or that the music is derivative, because neither is the case by any stretch of the imagination.

These tracks are the best kind of music -- they keep getting better and better with each listen.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
nostalgia-laden, July 31, 2004
Reviewer: fygmynt (macon, ga) - See all my reviews
the best thing i can say about this album is that to me, it IS the sound of modern new york. when i listen to it, i remember walking through the snow from columbia to the george washington bridge, alone, at 4 in the morning. it's a new sound, a sound of discovery, a sound that isn't easy, but very rewarding.

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Customer Reviews
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an incredibly well done album, January 5, 2006
Reviewer: P. Erhartic "P.J." (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This album was a great suprise. I bought it only hearing "we've been had" expecting another franz ferdinandish, strokesish sound, instead i found a talented band with a haunting, layered sound. "i'm never bored" and the title song are brilliant. Well done and high recommended.… (más)

# Setlist for The Walkmen - 02/12/04 Edit the master show record
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Venue The Crocodile Cafe
City Seattle
State WA
Set 1 Little House Of Savages
What's In It For Me
The Rat
Revenge Wears No Wristwatch
The Blizzard Of '96
Thinking Of A Dream I Had
138th Street
Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone
Hang On, Siobhan
Rue The Day
Bows And Arrows
Wake Up
Encore:
My Old Man
We've Been Had… (más)