The Walkmen - Lisbon

(Bella Union)

This sixth album from New York-based scattershot indie troubadours The Walkmen is something of a consolidation exercise, taking the many disparate sounds that have influenced their back catalogue and combining them into something which never quite matches the ragged and touching glory of 2008’s You & Me.

With songs called ‘Woe is Me’ and ‘Blue as Your Blood’, singer Hamilton Leithauser’s misery remains eloquently intact, but it’s the flashes of musical innovation, like the beautiful, swaying horns of ‘Stranded’ or the creepy, understated balladry of ‘While I Shovel the Snow’ that really stand out amongst the indie jangle and thrum.