TRANSVERSO

- A culture magazine reaching terminal verbosity -

Rostam

Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam Combine Artfully on 'I Had A Dream That You Were Mine'

Music ReviewWeston PaganoComment

“I use the same voice I always have,” belts out Hamilton Leithauser in “Sick As A Dog” to an Edward Sharpe-esque choral echo. With over a decade of expertly exerting one of indie’s boldest howls it would be senseless to stop, and following his former band The Walkmen’s “extreme hiatus” starting 2014 and a solo release in the same year, he has thankfully found yet another vessel to carry them on I Had A Dream That You Were Mine.

Leithauser is at his best at his most strained, anguished, and raw, and in his pairing with newly departed Vampire Weekender Rostam Batmanglij, the Brooklyn veteran offers no shortcomings of any of his strongest qualities while Rostam does his best to mix up the backdrops to the production. Further enlisting White Rabbits percussionist Stephen Patterson, the result is deftly balanced dynamics and a surprisingly diverse combination of styles resulting in an album that somehow feels equal parts eclectic and whole.

Much of Rostam’s production, not least the Vampire Weekend-reminiscent string arrangements, gives I Had A Dream That You Were Mine the feeling of truly being composed. Whether the medium is meandering harmonica or baroque accentuation, the multi-instrumentalist blossoms in the newfound freedom of realizing a long-standing aspiration to write for a voice he spent the last 15 years admiring from the outside.

First single and opening track ”A 1000 Times" breaks right out of the gate with Leithauser's full register of glorious, pleading yowls. The potential energy is immediately palpable in the delicate opening few seconds that serve only to set the stage for a vocal main course that doesn't really let up once it starts. “Rough Going (I Won’t Let Up)” reaffirms their commitment to carrying on while looking back at doo-wop inspiration before “In A Black Out” pauses for finger-picked balladry. Though much of peak Walkmen-era Leithauser vocals are delightfully thrown against a clash of reverb and electric guitar, we have them gently laid over a bed of acoustic here, while a Rostam-procured "Step”-style choir combines to beautifully fill the space.

Banjo-nestled “Peaceful Morning” veers close to saccharine at first before finding its stride in Leithauser’s gentle coos turned cries once more, while "When The Truth Is..." is a swanky blend of bottle slide guitar, steady piano plinks, and a jarringly splendid marriage of his impassioned pipes with those of a saxophone. The latter’s ecstatic barroom brawl of a chorus is a powerful highlight of both the record and their respective careers, flawlessly punctuated with Patterson’s skittering high hat. Submerged in the locomotion of Patterson’s drums, a country twang even pokes through in “The Morning Stars,” and, past the initial confusion of a new voice being introduced just as the credits roll, “1959”’s Angel Deradoorian (Dirty Projectors) feature gives an angelic foil to Leithauser’s lead.

A damn good duo, Leithauser and Rostam are a veritable phoenix rising from indie ashes that wonderfully proves when two doors close sometimes the window that opens lets in more than enough light to fill the bar. To argue that together they’re greater than the sum of their parts would be misleading - this collaboration would have a long way to go before attempting to dethrone either of its member’s past projects - though they at no point rely on reputation to carry the record, leaving us with an album that deserves far more than a footnote when the curtain falls. The dream many of us hold of a Walkmen reunion (and now even a Vampire Weekend one, to some extent) may fade with each passing night, but at least I Had A Dream That You Were Mine can be spun a 1000 times to more than fill the silence.

Hear Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam's New Single, "When The Truth Is..."

New MusicWeston PaganoComment

Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam's forthcoming collaborative LP, I Had A Dream That You Were Mine, is shaping up to be one of our favorite records of the year and we're only three tracks deep.

The latest taste of the album due out September 23 via Glassnote is "When The Truth Is...", a swanky blend of bottle slide guitar, steady piano plinks, and a jarringly splendid marriage of Leithauser's pipes with those of a saxophone. Listen below.

Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam Announce New Album Details, Release "In a Black Out" Single

New Music, Music NewsWeston PaganoComment

Now that we've listened to the first taste of ex-Vampire Weekender Rostam and The Walkmen's Hamilton Leithauser collaboration "A 1000 Times," the duo have filled in the details of their upcoming album and given us a second single to listen to as well.

"This is probably my favorite recording I've done in the last few years," Rostam said of "In a Black Out" on Twitter, and it's understandable why. Though much of peak Walkmen-era Leithauser vocals are delightfully thrown against a clash of reverb and electric guitar we have them gently laid over a bed of acoustic here, while a most likely Rostam-procured "Step"-esque choir combines to beautifully fill the space.

A 10 song LP titled I Had A Dream That You Were Mine is due out September 23 via Glassnote Records, the closing track of which features Angel Deradoorian, formerly of Dirty Projectors. Check out "In a Black Out," as well as the tracklist and album art, below.

Download "In A Blackout" and preorder the album I Had A Dream That You Were Mine: https://hamiltonrostam.lnk.to/IHadADream http://www.facebook.com/hamiltonrostam http://www.twitter.com/hamiltonrostam http://www.instagram.com/hamiltonrostam http://www.hamiltonrostam.com Music video by Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam performing In a Black Out. (C) 2016 Glassnote Entertainment Group LLC http://vevo.ly/AU5Exf

I Had A Dream That You Were Mine:

  1. A 1000 Times
  2. Sick as a Dog
  3. Rough Going (I Don't Let Up)
  4. In a Black Out
  5. Peaceful Morning
  6. When The Truth Is...
  7. You Ain't That Young Kid
  8. The Bride's Dad
  9. The Morning Stars
  10. 1959 [ft. Angel Deradoorian]

Vampire Weekend's Rostam and The Walkmen's Hamilton Leithauser Combine On "A 1000 Times"

New MusicWeston PaganoComment

Damn, we've missed Hamilton Leithauser's voice.

The former Walkman has joined forces once again with now ex-Vampire Weekender Rostam Batmanglij to grace us with "A 1000 Times," a lovely tune that breaks right out of the gate with Leithauser's full register of glorious pleading howls. The potential energy is immediately palpable in the delicate opening few seconds that serve only to set the stage for a vocal main course that doesn't really let up once it starts.

The official debut of the newly-christened Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam duo, it's the first taste of what the latter told Pitchfork "might be one of the best records I make in my whole life." Rostam elaborated on Sirius XMU, explaining,

I always wanted to try to really capture [Leithauser’s] voice in a way I felt like maybe it had never been captured before, just in terms of how it was recorded, and also pushing him to really scream, because it’s interesting. His voice has this kind of choir boy aspect to it, but then when he screams, it’s like a little bit of the choir boy is still intact, and I think that’s a special blend of things. He sings in a way like no one else sings. So I kind of felt like it was my role as the producer, to bring that out of him. And I think ‘A 1000 Times’ is probably one of the best examples of that.

As long as he keeps belting like that, we're sold.

Listen to "A 1000 Times" here: https://hamiltonrostam.lnk.to/A1000Times Lyrics: I had a dream that you were mine I've had that dream a thousand times A thousand times, a thousand times I've had that dream a thousand times I left my room, on the west side I walked from noon, until the