In time, the Walkmen's seventh album, Heaven, may be reckoned the band's finest, perhaps even its most Walkmen-like recording. The New Yorkers' commitment to vintage minimalism has been refined into stories rooted in places — sometimes, surprisingly, the South and the Midwest — and emotions that run deep, whether happy or nervous in love, evoked in barreling rock & roll, Byrdsy twang or a single, fragile guitar. Hamilton Leithauser lavishes upon every line his most spirited bellow as the band pours out tunes with the amber-tinted romanticism of doo-wop on a radio in American Graffiti. And what's wrong with that?
Last Time: The Walkmen sold out Off Broadway in October 2010 and delivered an exhilarating if short set. Here's hoping they'll stretch out in the larger confines of Plush.
