The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser

I love a musician who is consistently good — someone you can recommend to anyone at any time, knowing that whatever album they choose to listen to will be well received. Hamilton Leithauser, former lead singer of the Walkmen, is one of those artists. This is now the fifth time he’s been featured in my Top 31 (with the The Walkmen at #26 in 2010 and #9 in 2012, and without at #11 in 2014, and #19 in 2016), and if I’d started the Top 31 prior to 2009, The Walkmen’s prior albums would no doubt have appeared as well.

He’s damn good.

Leithauser is a crooner, but one who’s taken 24-grade sandpaper to his vocal cords. He pushes his 42-year-old voice to the brink, sacrificing his throat’s well-being with an intensity that not many would dare try. The roughness of his voice is in direct contrast to the pristine, perfectly engineered instrumentation of his music. Blended together, he creates a sound matched by no other.

As he says at the start of the promo video above, the songs on The Loves of Your Life are all about specific people Leithauser knows personally. His circle of friends and acquaintances proves to be ample clay from which to mold, as the album’s 11 songs each form a unique, beautiful piece of storytelling. The album is a fitting continuation of his 20+-year career, and one I’m proud to recommend to you now.

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1. Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee
2. Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple
3. Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
4. folklore + evermore by Taylor Swift
5. Untitled (Black Is) + Untitled (Rise) by Sault
6. RTJ4 by Run The Jewels
7. Shore by Fleet Foxes
8. Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger
9. The Ascension by Sufjan Stevens
10. Making a Door Less Open by Car Seat Headrest
11. Dreamland by Glass Animals
12. A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.
13. Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez by Gorillaz
14. Mordechai + Texas Sun EP by Khruangbin
15. Introduction, Presence by Nation of Language
16. Free Love by Sylvan Esso
17. Miss Anthropocene by Grimes
18. 3.15.20 by Childish Gambino
19. Women In Music Pt. III by HAIM
20. The Third Mind by The Third Mind
21. Superstar by Caroline Rose
22. Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver
23. We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches
24. Ultra Mono by IDLES
25. Visions of Bodies Being Burned by clipping.
26. Thin Mind by Wolf Parade
27. The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser
28. Palo Alto (Live) by Thelonious Monk
29. color theory by Soccer Mommy
30. Fall to Pieces by Tricky
31. Quarantine Casanova by Chromeo

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