While Hamilton Leithauser has been living in a post-Walkmen world since they announced their "extreme hiatus," he's kept quite close to the band's Paul Maroon. Continuing their musical relationship, they've just announced a joint album of originals and covers called Dear God, which will be released independently sometime this August.
Leithauser had been hinting at the release over the last few months, but officially unveiled the project in an Instagram post today (July 10). The 150-gram release will be available through Etsy.
Though Maroon had co-written plenty of songs on Leithauser's Black Hours, this is the first release to bill them as a pair. A statement from Maroon has him explaining that while they bounce ideas off each other over email that often become elaborately arranged pieces, Dear God strips things down to the core.
"Ham and I have been writing songs by exchanging recordings every few days for the past 15 years," he explains. "Sometimes these come together as songs with a full band. Other times, like two dogs chasing a neighbor's car, we hopelessly pursue what we liked about the original recordings, never to catch and, I guess, eat it. We often still think of the songs in their original form, as initial musical ideas put down on tape and shuffled back and forth between us. With Dear God, we wanted to make a record of songs the way we initially hear them."
In addition to the originals, Leithauser and Maroon have delivered covers of tunes written by Don Gibson, Will Oldham, Tom Paxton and VF Stewart. The title track, written by Stewart, was once covered by Patsy Cline. Oldham's "Trudy Dies" was recorded with his Palace project in the early '90s.
You'll find a stream of the old timey, torch-style piano composition "Proud Irene" and the tracklisting to Dear God down below.
Dear God:
1. Proud Irene
2. Utica Ave.
3. Trudy Dies (Will Oldham cover)
4. Light Sleeper
5. Dad is Drunk
6. Annie's Going to Sing Her Song (Tom Paxton cover)
7. Two Dark Summers on Long Island
8. Just One Time (the Everly Brothers cover)
9. How and Why?
10. Your Swingin' Doors
11. I Never Should Have Left Washington, DC
12. Loyalty Road
13. Dear God (VF Stewart cover)
Leithauser had been hinting at the release over the last few months, but officially unveiled the project in an Instagram post today (July 10). The 150-gram release will be available through Etsy.
Though Maroon had co-written plenty of songs on Leithauser's Black Hours, this is the first release to bill them as a pair. A statement from Maroon has him explaining that while they bounce ideas off each other over email that often become elaborately arranged pieces, Dear God strips things down to the core.
"Ham and I have been writing songs by exchanging recordings every few days for the past 15 years," he explains. "Sometimes these come together as songs with a full band. Other times, like two dogs chasing a neighbor's car, we hopelessly pursue what we liked about the original recordings, never to catch and, I guess, eat it. We often still think of the songs in their original form, as initial musical ideas put down on tape and shuffled back and forth between us. With Dear God, we wanted to make a record of songs the way we initially hear them."
In addition to the originals, Leithauser and Maroon have delivered covers of tunes written by Don Gibson, Will Oldham, Tom Paxton and VF Stewart. The title track, written by Stewart, was once covered by Patsy Cline. Oldham's "Trudy Dies" was recorded with his Palace project in the early '90s.
You'll find a stream of the old timey, torch-style piano composition "Proud Irene" and the tracklisting to Dear God down below.
Dear God:
1. Proud Irene
2. Utica Ave.
3. Trudy Dies (Will Oldham cover)
4. Light Sleeper
5. Dad is Drunk
6. Annie's Going to Sing Her Song (Tom Paxton cover)
7. Two Dark Summers on Long Island
8. Just One Time (the Everly Brothers cover)
9. How and Why?
10. Your Swingin' Doors
11. I Never Should Have Left Washington, DC
12. Loyalty Road
13. Dear God (VF Stewart cover)
