At 11 songs, the Walkmen's new Lisbon is a taut, well-considered collection, with warm-sounding, economical production. Its center—the decades-long honing of guitarist Paul Maroon’s shimmering tone—has a distinctness that sits alongside that of Johnny Marr or Peter Buck. Frontman Hamilton Leithauser’s voice, often strained at its edges before, has a gravitas that’s kin to the album’s occasional serenading horns. The band plays Terminal 5 with a pair of hot openers: the recently depleted School of Seven Bells—they are now a twosome upon the departure of Claudia Deheza—and the Denver husband-and-wife duo Tennis, which plies what could be described as Polaroid pop.
