Producer Rostam Batmanglij, formerly the keyboard player with Vampire Weekend, was one of the collaborators on Walkmen singer Hamilton Leithauser’s Sinatra-influenced 2014 album Black Hours. They had bonded in their hometown, Washington DC, where they occasionally met for ad-hoc sessions. But I Had a Dream That You Were Mine – its wistful title taken from the opening line of the first track, the single A 1,000 Times – is the duo’s first full album together. From the “shoo-wop-shoo-wop” backing vocals of When the Truth Is to the twinkly closing song 1959, which features singer Angel Deradoorian, this is an album that sounds as if it was enjoyable to record. The ambience of tracks such as Rough Going (I Won’t Let Up) is that of a boozy after-hours session in a backwater bar, while In a Black Out begins with fingerpicking guitar and choral backing vocals before being propelled into a dusty shuffle. But at the centre of it all is Leithauser’s distinctive voice – battered, bruised and pushing the Rod Stewart gravel-and-sandpaper-ometer into the red.
