Walkmen miss target

By Jeff Renfro

"Bows and Arrows," the recently released album by The Walkmen is stronger than their promising debut, "Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone," but still seems to relax when it should attack. The album features several standout tracks, but is limited by the forgettable songs. The Walkmen have delivered another album that seems to show promise, but does not quite deliver.

Many will know The Walkmen (Hamilton Leithauser-vocals/guitar, Walter Martin-keyboards, Peter Bauer-Bass, Matt Barrick-drums, and Paul Maroon-guitar/piano) from their song "We've Been Had," which was featured in a Mitsubishi commercial last year. The band claims that without the money they received for that spot, they would not have been able to make this album. Their most popular song to date was probably "Wake Up," from their last record, which was an MTV2 favorite.

The Walkmen are very influenced by The Cure and U2. Many of the lyrics bemoan growing up and convey a desire for some sort of intangible piece of life. The sound combines the jangly guitars of U2 with keyboards straight off of a Cure record. Unfortunately, the band ignores this winning formula half of the time, leaving the listener with a boring song that seems to go on forever.

The album's standout track, and its lead single, is "The Rat..." It is on this track that the band finally appears to be attempting to make an entertaining song. The track begins with an aggressive, urgent drum beat which is the backbone of the song throughout. The U2-style guitars come in, along with a danceable bass line that is absent on a majority of the band's tracks. The song's lyrics deal with an emotional break-up and the feeling of isolation that ensues. The song features the line, "When I used to go out I'd know everyone I saw/ Now I go out alone if I go out at all." On this track, Leithauser breaks away from his poor-man's Bob Dylan style and delivers the words with a high level of emotional intensity.

A track on which the drawn-out style seems to work is the opener, "What's in it For Me?" The song is based around a warm, organ melody that offsets Leithauser's scratchy vocals. The song features the great line, "I came here for a good time, but you're telling me to leave/ But you don't have to say it again 'cause I heard you the first time." The song conveys a sense of hopelessness and the abbreviated length keeps it short enough to avoid annoyance.

With "Bows and Arrow," The Walkmen have again left us waiting for them to create an album with better consistency. Their brilliant tracks make the slow, tedious ones all the more aggravating.

Grade: B-

û Contact Jeff Renfro at (408) 554-4546 or jrenfro@scu.edu.