THE WALKMEN return in September 2011 for a couple of festival dates and to coincide the band are releasing a new 2cd version of their acclaimed sixth studio album, ‘Lisbon’, featuring two previously unreleased tracks and 4 live recordings.
How do you follow an album as groundbreaking and heartbreaking as “You & Me”? The band spent two years driving between warehouses in Philadelphia’s Girard Avenue and Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal where they would write the majority of the new record. However, it wasn’t until a few inspiring trips to Lisbon, Portugal, that they established the album’s tone…
“None of us had ever been there, and we were really blown away by the place,” says frontman Hamilton Leithauser. “The topography and architecture are stunning and the people were really accommodating. I think those two trips really helped keep us motivated while making this record. We named the record Lisbon as sort of a thank you and a small tribute.”
The album was recorded in two instalments - the first at NY’s Gigantic Studios with You & Me engineer Chris Zane and in a couple of sessions in Dallas, TX with John Congleton who produced albums by St. Vincent and Explosions In The Sky.
At the halfway point of Lisbon front man Hamilton Leithauser sings. “Victory, right beside me / Victory, should be mine.” Arguably the album’s sonic climax, the chorus also serves as an appropriate mission statement for a band on the receiving end of so much admiration but a few false starts. “Lisbon” brings a raw, fiery rock’n’roll spirit to the songwriting complexities of You & Me. If that record was their return to form, Lisbon is their finest to date and feels like their moment.
1. Juveniles
2. Angela Surf City
3. Follow The Leader
4. Blue As Your Blood
5. Stranded
6. Victory
7. All My Great Designs
8. Woe Is Me
9. Torch Song
10. While I Shovel The Snow
11. Lisbon
CD2:
1. Dubai Bye
2. Dirty Love
3. Woe Is Me (Live)
4. Juveniles (Live)
5. Blue Is Your Blood (Live)
6. While I Shovel The Snow (Live)
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