Michelle Shiers on July 18th, 2014

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Emerging from the smoke of the Walkmen’s hiatus last year, former lead singer Hamilton Leithauser recently released his debut solo album titled “Black Hours.” Collaborating with the likes of Richard Swift (the producer who also plays in the Shins), Morgan Henderson from Fleet Foxes, Amber Coffman from Dirty Projectors and Rostram Batmanglij from Vampire Weekend, Leithauser brings to “Black Hours” an amalgam of styles with a familiar but moodier jangle. He boasts a collection of slow-burners featuring his Sinatra-indebted croon and passionate timbre. The new video for “I Don’t Need Anyone” features Walkmen sound-guy Christopher Colbert and Leithauser in a contemptuous relationship. Alienation and loneliness are sauntering motifs in the album, but what is most present in “Black Hours” is Leithhauser’s knack for genre-bouncing and still creating perfect tracks for the cinematic indie-palate.

||| Live: Hamilton Leithauser plays July 31 at The Echo.