Synaptic Burble Baubles & Infinite Ammo

First Impression of New Walkmen LP

In ten years; when ”Indie” has cracked the last band sticker from it’s coccoon and emerged as Adult Contemporary without sex, drama, or the possibility of good lyrics; I will debate with friends whether “You & Me” by The Walkmen or Fleet Foxes’s s/t was the point where it all went wrong.  Not that both aren’t melodically pleasing feats of craft, but that they’re such non-entities.  There’s no glint of intelligence or feeling to either of these records.  They’re real in the sense that a paper bag is real; signifying something authentic or warm that could just as easily be an affectation, so thin is the sense that any sentinment or idea is being expressed beyond a wallpapery pablum of hushed tones; nostalgiac reverence for people a little too smart for religion but a little too scared to expose themselves to any abyss that might gaze back.  I’m not saying that these are bad records; I’m saying that they disgust me in their utter failure to be worth discussing in terms you couldn’t just as readily apply to plumbing.