The Walkmen

Walkmen frontman/lyricist Hamilton Leithauser does late-twentysomething/early-thirtysomething-in-midlife-crisis hand-wringing better than any other American working in indie rock today. That his band's first two albums were titled Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone (in which he tried to convince himself his life didn't suck) and Bows and Arrows (in which he began to lash out after realizing it did) says a lot about his hangups. The rest of the band whipped up arty, droning organ-versus-guitar-pedal swirls that nearly disarmed Leithauser's Dylan-meets-Bono vocals and jaded, at-wit's-end laments. "A Hundred Miles Off" works the bitterness further while fooling with the sonics a bit. Bassist Peter Bauer and organist Walter Mart swapped roles during recording, and in this latest batch of bitter broadsides, the rhythm section is prominently foregrounded while the keys and axe atmospherics are scaled back — the better for them to rock out cleaner and crisper; the better for Leithauser's frustration to loom darker in the mix.