★★★★★
Tweet Walking Solo Hamilton Leithauser isn't exactly an unknown quantity. The Walkmen have been an indie institution for years, and it's only very recently that their frontman decided to strike out on his own. Black Hours is Leithauser's debut solo effort. It's a strong, promising, but somewhat frustrating start. Around 80% of Black Hours is exactly what you'd expect from Leithauser: listenable, guitar-driven indie rock...
- www.mxdwn.com
2014-07-08
★★★★★
opinion by MATTHEW M. F. MILLER
"5AM", a dark and simmering piano-meets-strings love song might be the closest Hamilton Leithauser will ever come to writing a James Bond theme. It's a moody, unexpected starting point for his solo career and makes for one doozy of an opening statement on Black Hours, a genre-hopping, solid debut...
- prettymuchamazing.com
2014-06-12
★★★★★
In 2004, the Walkmen released one of the best rock songs of the decade, "The Rat," a relentless, spiteful, venom-spewing anthem cleverly designed to sound like it was tearing itself apart while it was in the process of being played. Afterwards, instead of trying to match or exceed its vitriolic brilliance, the band angled sideways instead, embarking on a series of subdued, smart experiments--trading instruments, recording a faithful recreation of an under-loved Harry Nilsson record, and so on...
- pitchfork.com
2014-06-06
★★★★★
There's a certain existential mood that sinks in between the hours of 1 and 4 AM. The bars are closing, objects of desire are departing with other people, lights are growing scarcer in the surrounding high-rises, and subway stops are at least 6 blocks away. As a soundtrack to this semi-inebriated state of wee-hour weariness, the indie rock gods gave young urban-dwellers The Walkmen...
- www.noripcord.com
2014-06-05
★★★★★
Let's get this out of the way: The second of this summer's three solo albums from members of the Walkmen, the debut LP from frontman Hamilton Leithauser does at points sound like a Walkmen record. At other times it sounds as if this had been intended to be a Walkmen album, but became something somewhat altered in order to fit the new reality of the band's hiatus (a story which appears to be true)...
- consequenceofsound.net
2014-06-06
★★★★★
With the Walkmen (currently on "extreme hiatus"), Hamilton Leithauser tied rakish, majestic indie rock to Fifties sounds from doo-wop to Sun Records. That stuff is more present than ever on the singer's solo debut, where he's backed by members of Vampire Weekend, the Shins and Fleet Foxes, plus Walkmen guitarist Paul Maroon. Leithauser's voice has traces of Sam Cooke and Steve Perry of Journey as he stretches out on songs like the lachrymose "Self Pity" or the happy skiff le stomp "Alexandra...
- www.rollingstone.com
2014-06-03
★★★★★
Black Hours marks Hamilton Leithauser's first go as a solo artist after The Walkmen launched "extreme hiatus." It's ambitious and covers a lot of feels, championing above all his cobblestone warbling. Although a few cuts hit the joyous pop mark, many others stop just short.
It gives a bummer false start with "5 AM," a number that dismally drags like a Wintertime Boyfriend who doesn't get that all the snow has thawed. We can go back outside again, bro...
- www.pastemagazine.com
2014-06-04
★★★★★
Before The Walkmen announced an "extreme hiatus" last year, the New York City-based outfit was six solid albums deep, and had long staked a claim as one of the most consistently great bands of the past decade. The indie-rock mainstay's last three, 2008's You & Me , 2010's Lisbon , and 2012's Heaven found the band at its peak, with songs like "In The New Year," "Angela Surf City," and "Heaven" marking that impressive streak...
- www.avclub.com
2014-06-03
★★★★★
There are no splits anymore. People 'consciously uncouple' and bands embark on 'extreme hiatus'. Yet, if we strip away the Orwellian double-speak, the fact remains: there's no more Chris & Gwynnie, and (rather more upsettingly) there'll be no more The Walkmen records - at least, until a lucrative headline spot at a big European festival becomes available, at any rate...
- www.musicomh.com
2014-06-03
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