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An album that's more like the Walkmen's concerts than the meticulously crafted sound of their other albums.
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Alternative PressA Hundred Miles Off is nearly 100-percent on. [Jul 2006, p.204]
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The Walkmen haven't changed much since B&A... but they've honed their nervy talent chiseling lines of post-punk history.
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A set of rousing, sharply focused, late-night pleas and barroom romps that take the group well beyond its garage roots.
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While this most recent release does not equal the shimmering weight of Bows and Arrows, it has more than enough potency to stand on its own.
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As a result of [Leithauser's] strangulated mewls and caterwauls, "A Hundred Miles Off" is at times very difficult to listen to indeed.
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This is not an easy record to absorb. The band’s rough-hewn production is tinny and sonically chaotic, but underneath the surface noise lurks one of the finest records of the year.
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The CD's austere instrumentation brings out the worst in Leithauser, whose once-endearing tunelessness becomes a whining deterrent.
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FilterThe band has seized upon that sloshy saunter that we love and turned it into an elaborate dance. [#20, p.94]
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Overall, A Hundred Miles Off is less intense than one may expect; there is no "The Rat" on this record.
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MojoGive it time and you'll be rewarded. [Oct 2006, p.102]
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New Musical Express (NME)A hundred miles off, and they might as well be a thousand. [16 Sep 2006, p.37]
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The songs are still full of lush guitars and dense, clattering percussion, but offer the added bonus of being more grandiose and emotional.
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Despite occasional flashes of inspiration, much of the record blends together into a whole that is somehow much less than the sum of its parts; the ingredients are colorful, but the end result is disappointingly dull.
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So while Hamilton Leithauser believes he's made a record comparable to the legendary 'The Basement Tapes', it seems almost churlish to point out that you'd be far better off digging out a copy of 'The Basement Tapes' and listening to it, than going out and purchasing 'A Hundred Miles Off' and listening to it once.
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When the Walkmen are on, they can be as compelling as ever, but they’ve just spent too much time creating television-drama background music and not enough energy stretching themselves.
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A Hundred Miles Off needs a single or a hook to balance its trebly extremes, and Leithauser's good-ol'-boy tenor has lost some of its edge, tripping too easily into the whiny nether regions.
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Q MagazineThis is an album steeped in classicism while still creating its own world. It just lacks the killer song. [Oct 2006, p.127]
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Reveal[s] an unexpectedly lilting and rootsy side to its sound and a growing facility for evocative storytelling lyrics.
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The concentrated unity of form and content that elevated sterling sophomore effort Bows & Arrows has been replaced by a footloose approach to songwriting and style that fails to mesh.
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It’s the band’s throatiest, most pressing and urgent release to date.
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The Walkmen careen through 12 songs that frequently devolve into sound-swallowing echo and boozy bellow, until the whole album becomes one long, moody abstraction.
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Despite all the palpable influences, the Walkmen have made this album their own.
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The battle between the cream and the shit ends in a perpetual give and take, but it's the positives of A Hundred Miles Off we will remember in the long run.
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UncutAlthough A Hundred Miles Off doesn't always score a bullseye, its vibrancy and colour win through. [Oct 2006, p.133]
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Under The RadarThroughout A Hundred Miles Off the songs are almost blistering, almost gut-wrenching, but almost is never enough. [#14]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 35 out of 40
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Mixed: 5 out of 40
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Negative: 0 out of 40
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JanV.Jul 25, 2007
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CarolineDec 21, 2006A huge disappointment. This album is messy, rambling, and lacks the characteristic charm of The Walkmen.
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mattr.Aug 13, 2006