For the latest album from his band, the Walkmen, frontman Hamilton Leithauser channeled his inner Bob Dylan.
A Hundred Miles Off, slated for a May 23 release on Record Collection, will reveal a lighter side of the generally hard-rocking Walkmen who took their sound to a heavy place on 2004’s Bows & Arrows.
“We’re all very proud of this,” Leithauser told Billboard.com. “I think it runs about 42 minutes, and its much more solid than the last record. There are no dips, so it is very different in that regard. We’ve always been pretty heavy and this seems a little lighter. I mean, it still sounds like the same band. But it has a lot less organ involved.”
During a brief tour last month, the band got fan approval of their new material, including tracks like album opener “Louisiana,” which Leithauser called “light and fun sounding. We added a trumped line and it has a very Dylan Basement Tapes-era feel to it. But it’s a nod, not a ripoff.” The Walkmen similarly craned their necks to give a nod to another prolific songwriter for the track “All Hands in the Cook.” “It is probably our best song we did,” Leithuaser said, “and you could say it sounds like a modern Leonard Cohen.”
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A Hundred Miles Off, which the band worked on for about a year, was recorded at the band’s Marcata Studios in Harlem, and Inner Ear Studios near Washington, D.C.
Having taken more than two years to release a new album, the Walkmen are more than making up for the lapse by releasing another album in the fall; the project is a full recreation of Harry Nilsson’s 1974 album, Pussy Cats.
The Walkmen plan to tour the U.S and the U.K. in May and June.
In other Walkmen-related news, the lease is up on the band’s Marcata Studios and their new landlord, Columbia University, is kicking them out, according to the band’s website. Fans looking to own a piece of the Walkmen, including mixing consoles, studio monitors and stereo equalizers should visit www.marcata.net.
Track listing for “A Hundred Miles Off”:
“Louisiana”
“Danny’s at the Wedding”
“Good for You’s Good for Me”
“Emma, Get Me a Lemon”
“All Hands and the Cook”
“Lost in Boston”
“Don’t Get Me Down (Come on Over Here)”
“This Job Is Killing Me”
“Tenley Town”
“Brandy Alexander”
“Always After You (‘Til You Started After Me)”
“Another One Goes By”
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