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In 'The Blue Route,' it hits home like a 30th birthday--and as the standout 'In The New Year' points out, realizing "It's all over anyhow" can be invigorating, a way of readying oneself for the next, far more interesting chapter.
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The album’s majestic brilliance reveals itself through subtle perfections that appear with repeated listens.
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Intimate, intense and beautiful, You & Me demands repeat plays and the Walkmen deserve a new respect.
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The Walkmen have solidified their place among our memories.
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This variation in the songcraft amid absolute adherence to a predetermined aesthetic attests to the band’s ability to craft a well-paced, engaging arc, an album as much attuned to its coherency as it is to being a springboard for a few spectacular singles.
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FilterYou & Me has a panache that hearkens to an earlier era, acting like a rich veneer. Layers of energy, intimacy and meaning rise to the surgace to become a deeper part of you and me with each and every listen. [Fall 2008, p.91]
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You & Me isn't as hard or immediate as the band's earlier records, but that's not a complaint; Its sound is coy, and invites you to spend time with it.
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Melodic post-punk gives way to a wider sonic landscape, yielding to muted tones that dovetail comfortably with Hamilton Leithauser’s now-audible vocals.
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You & Me delves deeply into the evocative ballads that have made the band fascinating since "Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone."
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The hooks are hidden in dense atmospherics, but after a few late-night sessions, these grand, moody songs will reveal secrets worth waiting up for. [Oct 2008, p.122]
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It rewards that attention with small pleasures: guitar and organ playing off each other’s reverb, bass and drum dancing in and out of step, horns and vocals collapsing into a single bellow. In essence, it offers that luxuriant buzz that made rock and roll one of the great narcotics of the last half-century.
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Q MagazineThis fourth album is all the better for its subdued tone, mining its own strain of sozzled melancholia via underwater guitars, waltzing rhythms and lyrics steeped in wistful regret. [Nov 2008, p.123]
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It's muted, but intoxicating stuff.
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Much has been made of Leithauser's voice, which often feels choked, but on You & Me, could one imagine a more perfect instrument?
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It’s not a showy record, but one that when peeled apart reveals itself to be a darker and more engaging album than on first listen. But not only that, as it might also be the best thing they’ve ever done.
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It’s impossible to fully return all the way home again, but You & Me is the next best thing.
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[Leithauser’s] voice has filled out, like an adolescent discovering girls and his true sound at the same time. But too often on You & Me the rest of the group sounds pedestrian, cautiously still and unambitiously sticking to what they know so well.
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The album is another solid (if somewhat too long) set by a band firmly in control of where it is at and what it’s doing.
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Alternative PressYou & Me is a consolidation of strengths, intensity and pathos with enough '60s echo-chamber reverb to singe synapses. [Oct 2008, p.153]
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Under The RadarMost of these tracks should be outright downers, but the contrasts between sorrow, hope, loneliness, and independence strike just the right balance. [Fall 2008, p.85]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 59 out of 68
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Mixed: 2 out of 68
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Negative: 7 out of 68
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PatKFeb 9, 2009Awesome CD... Cannot get enough.
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SethCAug 28, 2008
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ElizabethAAug 26, 2008A melancholy trip. Love "On the Water." Completely eerie and addictive.