Album Review: The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser

It’s been seven years since the cult NYC indie band The Walkmen announced their split, or as they put it at the time “an extreme hiatus”. Since then, former frontman Hamilton Leithauser has had a relatively prolific solo career, usually in collaboration with ex-Vampire Weekender Rostram Batmangli. Loves Of Your Life marks Leithauser’s second official solo album (the third if you count I Had A Dream That You Were Mine, a co-release with Rostam), and this time it’s a more of a family affair.

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With the Walkmen and on his first two albums after that band went on hiatus, Hamilton Leithauser collaborated with some of indie rocks' brightest lights. On The Loves of Your Life, he continues that trend, but is working alone. Along with all the singing and songwriting, Leithauser produced the album and played everything on it, but unlike many one-person projects, it never feels insular.

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In a goofy teaser clip for his new album, Hamilton Leithauser seems to state the obvious: "Writing and recording music by yourself can be lonely." This is only the former Walkman's second solo record, following 2014's Black Hours and a collaborative LP with Rostam. But The Loves of Your Life is far from a solitary work; it is filled with people--both those firmly planted in Leithauser's world, and those who've wandered through by chance. Each of its 11 songs was written about a specific person, and while some names and details have changed, the album is a celebration of community and the relationships that make one possible.

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Making it as an independent artist after years fronting bands as critically revered as The Walkmen was always going to be a tall order - with many a songwriter struggling to overcome the lingering shadow that such an extensive and well-loved songbook can cast across a career. Teaming up with Rostam for 2016's 'I Had a Dream That You Were Mine', Leithuaser was quick to dispel this myth a whimsical flick of the wrist, re-imagining himself as a 50s style crooner - waltzing through a sea of neatly blended production, breathing in everything from doo-woop and country to basement bar rock n' roll. Four years on and having shed the former Vampire Weekend maverick, Hamilton Leithauser wanders back into the spotlight - this time alone - with his latest record, 'The Loves Of Your Life'.

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