The Walkmen - The RatAlbum: Bows + Arrows [2004]
the members of the walkmen grew up together in the washington, D.C. area and have played in the same bands since the fifth grade. perhaps the only way the group could be any closer is if they were all related. they made a conscious attempt to evolve away from the raw, fiery garage sounds of their previous bands (jonathan fire*eater and the recoys) by incorporating piano, and experimenting with instrumentation and recording techniques. influenced by such diverse bands as the pogues, joy division, bruce springsteen, bjork, and the smiths, their new music had favorably been compared to pixies and the velvet underground. in 2002, the walkmen made their proper full-length debut with "everyone who pretended to like me is gone", and was a favourite among indie crowds and paved the way for their first world tour. "bows + arrows", the band's first for warner bros.' record label, appeared two years later, and certainly didn't sound like your typical major-label debut. although it was tighter and more polished than their first album, any worries about restraints on the band's creativity were dismissed by the first eerie-yet-warm strains of its opening track, "what's in it for me". the organs and keyboards on this gentle prologue and some of the album's other interludes glow like streetlights reflected on rain-covered pavement. "bows + arrows" fused tons of energy into songs that are equally noisy, dreamy, angry, and romantic. though even their loudest songs still have a foggy distance to them, the album includes several tracks that rock much harder than anything they've done before or since. "the rat" is a fine example, as the band sounds joyfully pissed-off throughout. personally i'm a bigger fan of their 2008 album, "you & me", but this song is immediately flooring and has been considered by many online music publications as one of the best songs of the 2000's.
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