Hamilton Leithauser – Black Hours

With The Walkmen currently on an “extreme hiatus,” frontman Hamilton Leithauser strikes out alone with solo debut Black Hours. Well, not entirely alone: fellow Walk-man Paul Maroon remains by his side, while a supporting cast drawn from The Shins, Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes and Dirty Projectors completes a high-calibre support network.

Inspired by the melancholy night music of Sinatra’s In the Wee Small Hours, opener 5 AM stylishly evokes the crooner tradition, with solo piano and occasional strings funnelling full attention towards Leithauser's magnetic, soulful vocals. Their ragged texture is unmistakeable, and with many of the album’s subsequent tracks supplanting the stripped-back, barstool ballad vibe with a more straightforward rock sound, Black Hours is ultimately characterised more by its continuity with The Walkmen than by any kind of swerve-ball reinvention. However, considering the peaks the band had reached with 2012’s potential swansong Heaven, continuity alone is more than acceptable. [Chris Buckle]