Hamilton Leithauser

As a solo artist, Hamilton Leithauser takes the elements that made his band the Walkmen so special -- literate songwriting, a nostalgic but not navel-gazing sound, and a voice that sounds equally natural whether crooning or wailing -- in more personal directions. On 2014's Black Hours, he updated the torchy sounds of '50s and '60s vocal pop; with 2016's I Had a Dream That You Were Mine, he fused vintage rock and soul and 21st century indie in otherworldly ways; and on 2020's The Loves of Your Life, he animated his memoirist songwriting with vibrant, urgent music. ~ Heather Phares