Tracks
The Walkmen: "Emma, Get Me A Lemon"
(2006)
By Peter Hepburn | 28 January 2008
If the Hold Steady is the band in your head when you’re rip-roaring drunk, The Walkmen has always been what everyone else hears you muttering. The slurred, rumpled grandeur of the band has always been more genuine than the Strokes and more challenging than any of the NYC class of 2000. Sure, Bows + Arrows added some more edge to the group, but they were always the depressed drunk at the end of the bar just looking for an excuse to cut loose.
Listening through their third album, A Hundred Miles Off, you can’t shake the feeling that these guys are unstoppable. On first listen the album is a far less urgent and exciting affair than its immediate predecessor — no “The Rat” or “138th St.” to kick your ass across the room. Still, given a few listens the thing starts to open up showing signs of more care, quality, and maturity than any of the Walkmen’s previous work.
“Emma, Get me a Lemon” epitomizes this change. The guitars are solid and have a nice layer of reverb and fuzz wrapped about them, but it’s Matt Barrick, drummer extraordinaire, who really makes the song pop. He sounds as though he’s switched out the drum kit for a bunch of cardboard boxes and plastic cans, and yet can still make the track absolutely hurtle along. Hamilton Leithauser is, of course, no slouch, and his ability to simultaneously wail out the lines and mumble really makes the opening couplet of “Emma / get me a lemon / and if they have none / get me a lime” all the more outlandish. Any other band out there could have cleaned this one up, made those drums crash a bit heavier and had a huge hit on their hands. It takes guts and an understanding of the sort of album you want to make to leave it so hazy around the edges.
Listening through their third album, A Hundred Miles Off, you can’t shake the feeling that these guys are unstoppable. On first listen the album is a far less urgent and exciting affair than its immediate predecessor — no “The Rat” or “138th St.” to kick your ass across the room. Still, given a few listens the thing starts to open up showing signs of more care, quality, and maturity than any of the Walkmen’s previous work.
“Emma, Get me a Lemon” epitomizes this change. The guitars are solid and have a nice layer of reverb and fuzz wrapped about them, but it’s Matt Barrick, drummer extraordinaire, who really makes the song pop. He sounds as though he’s switched out the drum kit for a bunch of cardboard boxes and plastic cans, and yet can still make the track absolutely hurtle along. Hamilton Leithauser is, of course, no slouch, and his ability to simultaneously wail out the lines and mumble really makes the opening couplet of “Emma / get me a lemon / and if they have none / get me a lime” all the more outlandish. Any other band out there could have cleaned this one up, made those drums crash a bit heavier and had a huge hit on their hands. It takes guts and an understanding of the sort of album you want to make to leave it so hazy around the edges.