Hamilton Leithauser

I'm liking my First Listen of the new album by Hamilton Leithauser, the lead singer of the Walkmen.

The singer largely tones down the briskly jangled rush of The Walkmen's sound throughout Black Hours, as he steers many of its songs toward a slow-burning seethe that suits him well. But there's still a looseness to the record that allows Leithauser to play around on new terrain: "I Retired," in addition to having the most solo-debut-friendly title ever, even finds him delving into doo-wop halfway through. But Leithauser still hews to themes of aging and alienation — "I retired from my war / No one knows what I was fighting for / I don't even know myself anymore" — in ways that make Black Hours sound like a natural sequel to The Walkmen's work.

Recorded in collaboration with few likeminded all-stars — including Richard Swift, 's Rostam Batmanglij and The Walkmen's Paul Maroon — Black Hours feels stately and hand-crafted, even as bits of vein-bulging intensity poke through. Co-written with Batmanglij, "Alexandra" even manages something approaching fizziness, a welcome new discovery for a singer who needn't have worried so much about middle age after all.

Alexandra, indeed, is a standout and more up-tempered. Worth a purchase.