The Return of the Walkman?

I got rid of my Walkman years ago and have never looked back. It was a crude device and antithetical to dedicated music listeners. In fact, I haven't even thought of my old Sony Walkman whose hinges had broken and buttons were stuck or missing. I hadn't thought of it until last summer when I found a band called The Walkmen.

I picked up their third album A Hundred Miles Off and have been reliving some of my favorite bands ever since. The Walkmen create a sonic landscape that evokes images of bands as disparate as Pavement and Joy Division.

This album, from Warner offshoot Record Collection Music, is a thoroughly enjoyable listen with bracing stops and starts as well as lingering, spine-tingling, droning, shards of atmospheric feedback. At times, the singer, Walter Martin, recalls fellow New Yorker Paul Banks of Interpol. No deeper comparison of the bands should be made as their styles differ drastically. Where Interpol's songs all have radio potential, The Walkmen take the extra sonic step to avoid airplay.