I Had A Dream That You Were Mine

2016年ヴァンパイア・ウィークエンドから脱退したロスタム・バドマングリと2013年、ザ・ウォークメンの活動休止後、ソロアーティストとして活動しているハミルトン・リーサウザーがタッグを組み新たなプロジェクトをスタートさせた。
2014年7月から2016年2月の間にレコーディングされた今作はまるでブライアン・イーノとデヴィッド・バーンが二人のソロ・キャリアを生かしながら二人ならではのコラボレーションを果たした様にお互いの持ち味を高め合っている作品だ。ヴァンパイア・ウィークエンドのサウンドの核としてグラミー賞を受賞したこともあるロスタムがプロディーサー、そしてハミルトン・リーサウザーがシンガーという役割で楽曲を制作している。
ロスタムは今作に関して「これは10年以上も前から作りたかったレコードだ。ザ・ウォークメンのハミルトンのボーカルのファンとして、バンドでは捕えられなかった彼の魅力を引き出したかったんだ。彼のボーカルを今までの音楽史にない様なものにしようと試みたんだ。」と語る。一方でハミルトンは「ロスタムの取り組み方は僕が今までやってきたやり方とは基本的に全然違っていて感銘を受けたよ。僕らはどんな作品を作るのか全然考えていなかった。当初はアルバムを作るかなんて考えていなかったんだよ。でも予期しない良い出来事が続々と発生して、全ての楽曲を同時に書いてレコーディングしていったんだ。」と語る。
今作はドゥーワップやカントリー・ミュージック、1940～1960年代のアメリカのミッドセンチュリーを思わせるピアノやオルガン、そして1980年代のアナログ・シンセサイザーなどが詰まったアルバムになっている。

Magnet - "Hamilton Leithauser and Rostam Batmanglij make like Danny Ocean and Rusty Ryan on this Las Vegas-lit West Side story, all deathly stylish cufflinks and vertiginous white collars, licking their wounds between jobs in the lounge." NME (Magazine) - "'Sick As A Dog' is a shuffling, mournful, tender glam-rock song that often just pairs Hamilton's croon with roomy drums with thrilling simplicity." Pitchfork (Website) - "Together, Leithauser and Batmanglij work their way through nearly seven decades of musical history...but they also don't forget who they are in the process: one of '00s indie rock's most charismatic singers, alongside one of its most creative songwriter-producers." Clash (Magazine) - "It's a collaboration that works as there's a sense of longing for the past from both parties, be it lyrically throughout from Leithauser, or musically in the retro styling brought by Rostam. A solid debut..."

Pairing members of two of the most celebrated indie bands of the 2000s and 2010s, Hamilton Leithauser and Rostam's I Had a Dream That You Were Mine was a collaboration long in the making. The duo initially met in the late 2000s when Vampire Weekend opened for the Walkmen, and though Rostam worked on some of Leithauser's solo debut, Black Hours, it's easy to hear why they opted to share the billing this time around. Rostam brings as much of his aesthetic to these songs as Leithauser does, and it's possible to hear bits of Vampire Weekend's precise pop and surprising flourishes as well as the Walkmen's rousing and rollicking sides on each track. Both are well represented by I Had a Dream's opening and closing songs, which telegraph their yearning with the twinkling pianos that were a Walkmen staple: "A 1000 Times" uses them to welcome new love, while "1959" -- which also features Angel Deradoorian's otherworldly vocals -- uses them to evoke an old one. There's an almost surreal quality to the album's arrangements that adds to its feeling of being surrounded, and transported, by dreams and memories: as it moves from banjos to rolling pianos, "Peaceful Morning" sounds like it begins in the countryside and ends in a bar; similarly, the poignant sketch "The Bride's Dad" boasts a melody that could be a hymn or a drinking song and builds to almost comic grandeur. Both Vampire Weekend and the Walkmen were masters of creative nostalgia, and Leithauser and Rostam take their flair for reimagining classic sounds with postmodern glee to new levels on I Had a Dream That You Were Mine. The pair uses hints of Dylan's The Basement Tapes, Harry Nilsson (in hindsight, the Walkmen's cover of his album Pussy Cats ended up being a pivotal moment in their career), and doo wop in audacious and inspired ways. The "sha-dooby" backing vocals that pepper "Rough Going" could easily sound corny, yet they're as charming here as the ghostly nod to the Flamingos' "I Only Have Eyes for You" is on "When the Truth Is...." This juxtaposition of old and new feels much more natural than it did on Black Hours, and taps into Leithauser's emotive powers fully. There's something moving about how he repeats "I use the same voice I always have" on "Sick as a Dog," a feeling that's echoed on "In a Black Out," a song Leithauser originally wrote for the Walkmen but blossoms on I Had a Dream's more intimate approach. It would be easy to say that I Had a Dream That You Were Mine rivals Rostam and Leithauser's past work, but it's better to say that it's the beginning of a great partnership. ~ Heather Phares

ウォークメンを活動休止中のハミルトン・リーサウザーが2014年の初ソロ作に続き、早くも2作目を完成させた……と思ったら、前作にも参加していた元ヴァンパイア・ウィークエンドのロスタムが全面的に音作りを手掛けた、コラボ盤という形でのお目見え。新世紀NYの異才たちが実らせた果実は、各々が在籍したバンドとは一線を画するものに。"Rough Going"のドゥワップ、"Peaceful Morning"のカントリー、"When The Truth..."のソウル、"The Bride's Dad"のワルツと、言わばレトロでルーツィーなアメリカン・スタイルを、80sっぽいスケール感のあるプロダクションで鳴らしている。ロスタムはウッディーな生楽器もクワイアもシンセも自在に操って、ハミルトンのダイナミックでフレキシブルな歌心を引き出し、シンガーとしての圧倒的な存在感をショウケース。伊達なクルーナーから傷心のブルースマンまで、曲ごとに演じ分けながら醸すロマンスと洗練は、USインディーの無法地帯を切り拓く。
bounce (C)新谷洋子