Hamilton Leithauser – 11 O’Clock Friday Night

WITH PREPPY-DRESSING EAST COAST indie-rock romantics The Walkmen on “extreme hiatus” their smiley frontman Hamilton Leithauser previews a June solo album with 11 O’Clock Friday Night. A skippy confection of xylophones, Graceland bass and strumming, it’ll have you singing “You and me and everybody else!” repeatedly, for ever.

Featuring vocals from Dirty Projectors’ Amber Coffman, it presages Leithauser’s debut solo album Black Hours, a varied set with an off-the-leash feel abetted by collaborators including Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend), Paul Maroon (The Walkmen), Morgan Henderson and Richard Swift (The Shins/solo). It’s out June 2/3 on Ribbon Music.

And if that hits the spot, or at least adjacent, why not wallow in a rich week for solo tracks by blokes out of The Walkmen? Peter Matthew Bauer’s Latin American Ficciones is the mouthful of a single off his June 24, Memphis Industries album, Liberation!, which seems set to interest fans of dreamily shimmering indie-guitar rock à la War On Drugs.

Perhaps it’s something in the water over in Philadelphia...