Pussy Cats Starring the Walkmen
Yes, this is a note-for-note remake of Harry Nilsson and John Lennon's 1974Pussy Cats,and that may be the only reason it could come out in the same year as theother2006 Walkmen album,A Hundred Miles Off. What makesPussy Cats Starring the Walkmenso wonderful is first the music: that liquor-fueled yowl that Nilsson bellowed and growled out with Lennon spinning the dials. Beyond the music, there's a passion-in-packaging play here. The double-digipack is lavish, providing a separate tray for a bonus, the "Making of" DVD, a 20-minute piece laced with the narrator's irony and somesweetstock footage. There's also a great vignette where two members of the French Kicks relate dealing with an IRS (the taxman, not the record label) agent who, upon hearing they're musicians, introduces himself as Nilsson's brother--for real. A live group montage of the band's rousing take on "Loop de Loop" shows the Walkmen's Harlem studio packed with partygoers yowling along. On the tunes, the Walkmen are faithful to the abandon that marks "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and aptly heartfelt on "Save the Last Dance for Me." Their trademark mix of scruff and mid-tempo restraint is loosed here, freeing the band to tacklePussy Catswith glee. It's not redesigning anything, and no global resolutions were reached. ButPussy Cats Starring the Walkmenis a delight.--Andrew Bartlett