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Bows & Arrows
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 30 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Record Collection
Release Date: 03 February 2004
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Summary
Although lumped in with the New York garage-rock scene, The Walkmen (which includes members of defunct bands Jonathan Fire Eater and The Recoys) stand out by incorporating a wider range of influences and instrumentation. (Plus, they own their own New York recording studio, which puts them about as far from an actual garage as you can get). This is the band's second LP, which follows their acclaimed 2002 debut 'Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone.'
Also By This Artist: "Pussy Cats" Starring The Walkmen A Hundred Miles Off You & Me
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Delusions of Adequacy
Confident, daring, regal, and altogether incredible, Bows & Arrows knows its bounds and casually out-steps them; simply put, it is the best record released this year.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
Bows and Arrows reveals a band that's grown tighter, hungrier, and more varied since last time. [6 Feb 2004]
Stylus Magazine
Bows and Arrows is an album of grandiose pleasures, the sound of a band not just making good on the promise of their debut, but expanding every which way at once, merging distinctive songcraft with decadent theatrics, and tethering themselves to a confidence that they, unlike others, will survive the sea-change of a deflating scene.
Read Full Review >ShakingThrough.net
Musically, the Walkmen are not only tighter, but also more purposeful.
Read Full Review >Dot Music
It's tumultuous. It's breathtaking. It's expressive without the barest hint of Radiomuse indulgence.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
This is a work that blends a preoccupation with both the maudlin and mundane with the musical sensibility of the Factory Records collection.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Though sonically similar to its predecessor, the new album sets aside whimsical wandering to make room for more straight-for-the-heart (by way of the throat) conviction; simply put, it rocks harder.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
Overwhelmingly, it all adds up to an album that will never make a fuss in your collection, but every now and then you'll remember how much you love it.
Read Full Review >Uncut
Sodden with emotional profundity. [May 2004, p.104]
Planet
Bright, brash rock songs colored by staccato rhythms, new wave keyboards, and jagged speedy-clean guitars are juxtaposed with drony, understated post-Velvets moments. [#6, p.86]
Neumu.net
Even with a couple of missteps, this is a solid album that will likely stay in heavy rotation on your stereo for months to come.
Read Full Review >Playlouder
Quite simply, 'Bows + Arrows' is a Great American Record, taking the qualities most admired in the last 35 years of US rock and barbecuing them together.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Bows + Arrows may not be a drastic change from Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone, but their music, built on loud guitars and organs and strange reflections and remembrances, is so unique that drastic change isn't necessary, and simply having more of it around is more than enough.
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
The songwriting and production are sharper and the scope is decidedly larger, capturing the band’s conflicting urge to play the introspective balladeer and the pub-crawling mod-rocker.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
Intriguing, stylish stuff. [May 2004, p.111]
Austin Chronicle
The Walkmen have something the Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs are lacking: passion.
Read Full Review >Junkmedia
This is at once a record to rock out to, a record to contemplate, and a record to immediately buy if you think it impossible for a band this well-hyped to defy their own press.
Read Full Review >Almost Cool
All in all, the album is a good one, but still feels a small step away from being great.
Read Full Review >No Ripcord
Many numbers, such as the unbearably meandering No Christmas While I’m Talking, present themselves as merely background music - pleasant enough, sure, but doing little to draw the listener’s attention.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
I'm not writing the Walkmen off just yet, but this is a genre that you can't afford to stay in one place and hope to keep an edge on the competition.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Bows & Arrows might seem like the ideal rock'n'roll yuletide soundtrack--and it is, but only for those who spend their Christmases in dive bars with nothing but a gold-hearted hooker, bottomless highball glass and volume of Bukowski poetry for company. [May 2004, p.100]
Alternative Press
Unlike more polished bands with little to say after two releases, the Walkmen sound like they're gradually striding into some big shoes. [Mar 2004, p.106]
Billboard
Yet where the music is hard-hitting, the hoarse, almost drunken vocal style of lead singer Hamilton Leithauser can be grating.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine
The carefully constructed sonics, though beautiful, can be so snoozily contemplative.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
‘Bows And Arrows’ isn’t a bad album, merely average, struggling to match the level of excitement generated by the brilliant single ‘The Rat’.
Read Full Review >Blender
Unrushed, spacious, and duller than a four-hour hayride. [Mar 2004, p.130]
Rolling Stone
With his gasping vocals serving up warmed-over pleas, Hamilton Leithauser aches but never sounds like he's really hurting.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 30 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Ash C gave it a10:
I think Brad's got it right. Perhaps it's the sequencing of the tracks, the lyrical content which seeps in subconsciously or the warmth of the production, there is just that something special about this album which lifts it above the other indie-rock competitors. Bows + Arrows creates a very pronounced late-night/drunken-yet-still-hopeful mood that lingers long after the final track. A genuine classic.
Tore F gave it a10:
Best CD ever made
Gabo S gave it a7:
I bought the album after hearing so much good from my friends and some reviewers, and I think that it's one of those albums that really grows on you from multiple listens, but wasn't as solid as I would have liked it. "The Rat" has to be the most stand-out song in the album, mainly cause' it's the most intense and fast song on it. Most songs are good, but what turned me off were the slow/low instrumentation songs like "No Christmas While I'm Talking" or "Hang On Siobhan" which I found boring and now I just skip them. Put that aside, the rest of the album is good, just wished they got rid of the slow songs and made more songs as engaging as "The Rat." If you like their overall sound (from the first album too) you should like this album. But if you want a solid album with more hooks and intensity (The Rat), try Franz.
[Anonymous] gave it a10:
this album is perfect in every way.
[Anonymous] gave it a10:
Their first album was good but not neccessairly a "classic". Still, It showed a lot of promise. This album more than delivers that promise. This band has made one of the best rock albums in years with "Bows + Arrows".
Vince H. gave it a10:
Unbelievaly great music. I was a fan of their first album, but not blown away. I loved the first 8 tracks, but felt that the end of that album just wasn't memorable or as interesting as the rest. This one completely blew my mind. The songwriting is 100 times better, the musicanship more confident and focused, and the tunes themselves just plain rock. Not a bad one on the whole thing. This is an album from a band that KNOWS what they want to do and how to do it. I can't wait for the next one.
Brad gave it a10:
There's a great tired sadness/drunkeness in this band's sound. But the sadness isn't depressing because there's always a spark behind it all. People don't often mention lyrics when discussing this band but there's some great lines. Such as: "I see you with your new boyfriend. It's funny how you look at him. I know we won't be seeing him again." That's definately a keeper. Although alot of reviewers don't seem to "get" this album I also think it's Album of the Year. Fantastic.
