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Jun 3, 2014In the hands of a less capable frontman and songwriter, Black Hours could have turned out as a cheesy attempt at ’50s pastiche. Instead, it’s a lively, confident, and charming first effort.
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Jun 2, 2014What’s most impressive about Black Hours is how Leithauser can bounce from one style to another without disrupting the flow of the album.
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May 27, 2014Black Hours could easily have been Walkmen-lite, but Leithauser's ambition to seize the opportunity, and eschew the obvious, results in an album his voice--and a number of his fans-- has no doubt longed for.
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MojoMay 21, 2014[Leithauser] revels in letting his talent run free, outwith trad rock arrangements. [Jun 2014, p.92]
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Q MagazineMay 21, 2014There's a small charisma shortfall, but blessed with good songs, Leithauser wears everything well. [Jun 2014, p.113]
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May 21, 2014Black Hours knowingly and passionately charts a journey through make songwriting archetypes, from doomed fatalist to well-adjusted realist. [Jun 2014, p.84]
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Jun 6, 2014Black Hours shares some of its strengths with Leithauser’s work with the Walkmen, and same goes with its weaknesses—namely, an occasional lapse in focus.
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Sep 5, 2014The rest of the album never really recovers from this one [third track “Alexandra”]. Mostly this is a result of very good music getting too ambitious for its own purposes.
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Jun 5, 2014It achieves a good and meticulously contrived balance that will continue to satisfy the Brooklyn insomniacs, but rarely does it risk doing more.
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MagnetJun 4, 2014It's a serious-minded, dramatic record, dressed up with strings, marimba and reverb-soaked guitars. [No. 109, p.60]
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Jun 3, 2014Black Hours illuminates Leithauser’s individual abilities for sure. And once he firms up what it is he actually wants to say or at least how he wants to say it, the result will surely be worth leaning in on to process.
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Jun 2, 2014It would be unfair to call Black Hours a missed opportunity; even if its glimpses at fresher musical territory are tantalizing, Leithauser carries on the Walkmen's tradition in ways that fans will welcome.
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Alternative PressMay 30, 2014Black Hours [is] loaded with familiar falsetto swoops, cutting middle range and observation mixed with self-reflection. [Jul 2014, p.98]
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May 27, 2014Black Hours might be a tad scattershot, but it's held together with real spirit.
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Jun 11, 2014Black Hours is a throwback, but it’s a throwback that could have benefitted from a few more forward-looking ideas.
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Jun 16, 2014Only when Leithauser relaxes the template does he start to cock it up.
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Jun 3, 2014If his songwriting can be a bit flabby, the deep palette and intimate musicianship sustain a mood of late-night melodrama stretching toward 5 a.m. epiphany.
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Jun 2, 2014It's just a little too easy to wonder how Black Hours may have evolved with Walkmen drummer Peter Bauer's restlessly inventive percussion propelling the lulls, or how a democratic approach may have suppressed a few indulgences. In other words, imagine if this had been a Walkmen record...
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May 21, 2014While we should never compare a solo artist with their band’s work, when the template they’ve already set over the years is so very strong, and when they don’t at any juncture try to reset it, the feeling of missed opportunity is perhaps potent and hard to escape.
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Jun 5, 2014On Black Hours, Leithauser tries on a bunch of outfits, and at times those outfits are more costume than something pulled out of his own closet.