Wednesday, November 1, 2006

The Walkmen - Pussy Cats Starring The Walkmen

Album Review
Paste
November 2006
(Link TK)
1.5 Stars


Indie rockers slaughter the classic classics-slaughterer.

Misery may love company, but it's usually less kind to imitators. New Yorkers The Walkmen learn this the hard-drinking way. The veteran indie-rock quintet's latest re-creates the hammered, help-from-my-friends bereavement of singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson's 1974 album, Pussy Cats, recorded with John Lennon during the former Beatle's tumultuous separation from Yoko Ono. Pussy Cats Starring The Walkmen faithfully revisits Nilsson and Lennon's ragged desecrations of "Subterranean Homesick Blues," "Save the Last Dance for Me" and other rock 'n' roll standbys, with strings, saxphone, and barbecue-sauce-gargling choir (seriously). While Hamilton Leithauser's hoarse yowl perfectly suits the plastered proceedings, the late Nilsson would likely have settled for a less sincere form of flattery.

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