record reviews

June 3, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

THE WALKMEN

Album: “Heaven” (Fat Possum)

Grade: A

“While I Shovel Snow,” one of the best tracks on the Walkmen’s last album, 2010’s “Lisbon,” was its most understated, and it seems to have suggested the direction for “Heaven,” the New York/ Philly quintet’s sixth full-length (not including their song-by-song cover of Harry Nilsson’s “Pussy Cats”). The album does occasionally unleash the band’s unhinged rock ’n’ roll side, but the overall mood is restrained, nuanced and spacious. “I was the Duke of Earl, but it couldn’t last,” Hamilton Leithauser croons introspectively on album-opener “We Can’t Be Beat,” and there’s an element of doo-wop to what the Walkmen do there, and on “No One Ever Sleeps,” a track that also features Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold. Fans of “The Rat,” the band’s signature anthem, may be disappointed, but “Heaven” offers plenty of rarefied pleasures.

— Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer

Regina Spektor

Album: “What We Saw from the Cheap Seats” (Sire/Warner)

Grade: B

From the opening moment of “What We Saw from the Cheap Seats,” Regina Spektor enchants. On the first song, “Small Town Moon,” her beautiful vocal range is buoyed by rock-heavy interludes and coupled with uplifting lyrics that give the song a surprising amount of depth.

“Oh Marcello” mixes beat-boxing and piano rather uncomfortably as Spektor borrows a line from “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” made famous Nina Simone; it’s interesting but it doesn’t really work. She regains her stride with “Don’t Leave Me [Ne Me Quitte Pas],” where she shows she can sing as beautifully in French as in English.

The only weird moment is on “Open,” where the listener is subjected to a noise that sounds like Spektor being strangled; it’s odd and offputting, and misplaced here.

— Sian Watson, Associated Press

Beach House

Album: “Bloom” (Sub Pop)

Grade: B

“Bloom” is the fourth studio album from Beach House and follows the duo’s successful 2010 album “Teen Dream.” Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand created “Bloom” on the road during the band’s two-year tour. The first single, “Myth,” is a beautiful concoction of twinkling synth, with dreamlike, fluid melodies, paired with equally dreamy lyrics: “What comes after this, momentary bliss.” The album then drifts into “Wild,” and the dreamscape continues with the addition of a distinct rhythm, echoing a heartbeat.

The band is successful in creating a fantasylike atmosphere with the songs. But the disc wanes a bit toward the end, and listeners may find themselves nodding off instead.

— Sian Watson, Associated Press