Walkmen - Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone
(Startime)

I had recently moved to a new city (Toronto, for those who care), and the Walkmen were going to be playing a show. "Hey," I thought, "that might be fun." Don't ask my motivation for this, because how much fun is it going to see a band you don't like? Not very much fun, I'll tell you. Anyhow, in preparation for the show, I took out my copy of Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone, and... it clicked. Suddenly, the rusty production, archaic instruments, and lead guy Hamilton Lethauser's recognizable wail weren't annoying or strange—they were brilliant and beautiful! The shoegaze-by-way-of-scrapheap build of opener "They're Winning" entranced me, and piano based tunes like "The Blizzard of '96" and "We've Been Had" had a punch to them that they'd never had before. The title track's string outro was haunting. And the album's most powerful track, the melancholia tinged "Rue the Day," brought with it many repeated listens. All in all, a fantastic album. Then, the show came, I went with a friend, and the band's power really kicked it—Hamilton was the perfect front-man, and the rest of the band followed suit. You could tell they loved what they were doing. They were friendly and funny. The show kicked ass.

Anyway, now that I do love the album, let me rattle off some points that make it good:

1. The production: what at first seems tacky, scrappy, and sloppy reveals itself to be an integral aspect of the music. Songs like "They're Winning" and "The Blizzard of '96" would not work half as well if not for the rusty, archaic sound and Walter Martin's esoteric tape manipulations; likewise, moments of clear, crisp sound would lose their impact, such as on two of the standouts, "Wake Up" and "Rue the Day."

2. The instrumentation: The Walkmen rely on a wide array of instruments to get their sound across successfully: it wouldn't be so without it. Among instruments listed are the electric whip (!), sandpaper, claves, a lap steel and, perhaps the most important, a court piano. That's right, in almost all of their songs, the band incorporates piano in one way or another: from the background plunking on "Wake Up," to the full on piano assault of "We've Been Had," the piano provides a really different facet to their sound.

3. An enigmatic front-man: I'll be honest, Hamilton Lethauser is a dreamboat. My computer's spellcheck even accepts the term "dreamboat" as a real word. That's how cool he is. And he looks like James Van der Beek. That gives him instant recognition power. But, seriously, his voice is not only a striking counterpoint to the music within, but he's also got a heck of a stage presence. Like I said, dreamboat.

4. The songs: What's a good album without good songs? Tortoise's TNT. Ah huck ah huck ah huck. No, but really, the songs here are absolutely stellar. Like I've been saying, "Wake Up" is a power anthem. The title track provides an anti-coda worthy of Fog, with the morosely sung line, "I'll make the best of it", sung again and again and again. "Rue the Day" remembers lost love in a tasteful way. "We've Been Had" is a rallying cry for all of those who hate any certain scene (check out these lyrics: "I'm a modern guy/I don't care much for the go-go/or the retro/image I see so often/telling me to keep talking"). "Revenge Wears No Wristwatch" is Civil War-era post-punk perfected. "The Blizzard of '96" is a knowingly unanswered plea for forgiveness. The only song that feels tacked-on is the closer, "I'm Never Bored", which doesn't really need to be there. Otherwise, Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone works really well, both as an album and as a collection of songs.

anthony gerace 2002 dec 13