The Walkmen
Pussy Cats Starring The Walkmen
Release Date: Oct 24, 2006
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Record label: Record Collection
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Album Review: Pussy Cats Starring The Walkmen by The Walkmen
Fairly Good, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 7/10
Remaking an entire album -- especially one as rooted in mood and the performers involved as Harry Nilsson's Pussy Cats -- seems about as wise an idea as Gus Van Sant's shot-by-shot remake of Psycho. Fortunately, the Walkmen's song-by-song redo of Pussy Cats doesn't come off as a half-baked technical exercise. The band remains loyal to the rambling feel of the original (which, to be fair, was half covers itself) and the results are as intimate as an in-joke between old friends.
Based on rating 6.0/10
One of the age-old debates about art (and for the sake of this discussion, we're assuming a shambolic cover album made under what sounds to be the influence of copious amounts of alcohol by some New York City indie rockers counts as "art") is about for whom it's made. Do artists attack their work with the outside world/audience/public in mind? Or is all art really made simply for the creator, who uses it as some cathartic release of inner feelings? Maybe that's a bit too deep. Maybe it's just for artists to entertain themselves? That sounds like a better explanation for why the Walkmen did a track-for-track remake of Harry Nilsson's 1974 album Pussy Cats.
Opinion: Mediocre
The Walkmen's track-for-track redux of Harry Nilsson and John Lennon's classic 1974 "lost weekend" buddy album could have stayed a boozy 3am idea that never comes to fruition. It's no secret the NYC lads love Nilsson, but their Pussy Cats have regurgitated a painfully indulgent hairball. "Many Rivers to Cross," so gloriously reinforced by Nilsson's shot vocal chords and a string section on the original, sounds forced here, while "Subterranean Homesick Blues" falls a scotch on the rocks short of capturing the big kick of Dylan.