Bows + Arrows by The Walkmen

Bows + Arrows, the Walkmen's second album, came out on Record Collection on February 3, 2004, and it's the sound of a New York band caught between wiry post-punk and a late-night, organ-soaked hangover. They produced it themselves, handing only "The Rat" to Dave Sardy, and that's the one that blows the doors off: Matt Barrick's drums pounding like fists, Paul Maroon's guitar shrieking, Hamilton Leithauser hollering himself hoarse.

Elsewhere Walter Martin and Peter Matthew Bauer swap bass and organ, and the mood swings from bar-closing melancholy to jittery nerves. Critics piled the album onto their year-end lists, "The Rat" later landed high in rankings of the decade's best songs, and "Little House of Savages" and "What's in It for Me" both turned up on The O.C.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.