2012: A Year In Retrospect

The Twilight Sad

I don't want to cast a downer on the past 12 months, but I think most would agree 2012 has hardly been a vintage year. Let's not get overly dramatic here; affairs in the musical world have been as compelling and headline-worthy as ever, and although short on true masterpieces we haven't exactly been bereft of quality releases on which to gorge. Speaking from a personal perspective, nothing has hooked me in the way that WU LYF's Go Tell Fire To The Mountain or The National's High Violet have in recent times, though to grumble would seem irreverent given the wealth of worthwhile material we have been blessed with.

Album Review: The Walkmen - Heaven

Album Rating: A

When we speak of bands operating within a comfort zone, we usually do so whilst implying negative connotations. The Walkmen, however, have on the whole been exempt from such rulings, and it must be said with good reason. The New Yorkers settled into a sweet spot pretty swiftly following their formation in 2000, and have since made only subtle amendments to a formula that's become both familiar and distinctive. Sticking to what they know has hardly been a hindrance though, and has earned them a reputation among the most consistently excellent bands that indie-rock has to offer. Indeed the only real criticism which could be levelled at them is that they've never managed to deliver a truly great record; the type that moves a band up a level and immortalises them at the expense of countless contemporaries. Commendable though their catalog is, The Walkmen have long seemed destined to be American indie's nearly men - always a pleasure, but never quite capable of pulling alongside The Nationals and Arcade Fires of this world.