This Side Of The Island

In their solo careers, the Walkmens members are big on quality control. During a time when many artists pepper their fans with new material and social media posts to stay relevant, they only appear with new music when theyre good and ready. This Side of the Island arrives five years after The Loves of Your Life, but Hamilton Leithauser spent eight years making it (and even joked that its creation spanned three presidencies). Though this averages out to a little less than a year per song, Leithausers fourth album is far from overcooked: In fact, it might be his most direct, and its certainly his most passionate. It feels like not just nearly a decade of experience went into it, but nearly a decade of impatience as well. Its songs burst out of him: "Knockin Heart," with its ringing power chords and roaring vocals, rivals the firepower of the Walkmens "The Rat." On his earlier solo albums, Leithauser put as much musical distance as he could between himself and his former band, whether with Black Hours postmodern crooning or I Had a Dream That You Were Mines surreal nostalgia. Hearing him revisit the louder side of his music on This Side of the Island is a real thrill, especially when he navigates it as skillfully as he does on the title track. Building from moody reflections to shout-along choruses, it reflects the Walkmens effortlessly shape-shifting songs as well as complex emotions ("Its not a beautiful country/As much as Id like it to be"). Leithauser picks up this part of his music as easily as reconnecting with an old friend; as he sings on "I Was Right," "Its a brand-new bottle/But its filled with the same dark wine." But instead of pining for a time gone by, the albums moment is now. Even when Leithauser is missing someone powerfully on "Fist of Flowers," hes decidedly in the present. The world changed significantly as he worked on This Side of the Island, and its defiant festivity shines all the brighter in comparison to the dark tenor of the mid-2020s -- shambling, strutting songs like "Happy Lights" and "Ocean Roar" feel like parties in media res. The way Leithauser (who co-produced the album with his wife Anna Stumpf and the Nationals Aaron Dessner) uses classic sounds is just as vital and vibrant. The tumbling marimba, organ, and brass on "What Do I Think?" have a bashed-out punk energy, and though the backing vocals on "Burn the Boats" link the song to 60s soul, the wobbly synths around them are 21st century through and through. His lyrics are simply eloquent as always, with lines like "Cracking your knuckles with a sad smile/It gets easier every time" (from "Off the Beach") telling an entire story with a handful of words. This Side of the Island may be short, but its long on heart. This is a life-affirming triumph of an album that dares to be uplifting during difficult times. ~ Heather Phares