5 AM by Hamilton Leithauser

Album: Black Hours (2014)

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Songfacts®:

This downbeat but lighthearted piano number is the opening track of Black Hours, the debut solo studio album by Hamilton Leithauser. The former lead singer of The Walkmen, wrote the tune with the band's former guitarist and keyboardist Paul Maroon, following the break-up of their group in late 2013. "I wanted to try and sound as heavy as I could, but it started getting funny," Leithauser told Radio.com.
Leithauser took inspiration for Black Hours from Frank Sinatra, particularly his 1955 album In the Wee Small Hours. However, he admitted 'Ol Blue Eyes' could have benefited from having a better sense of humor. "I really did think he was very schmaltzy and cheesy for so many years. And I still do on some level," Leithauser said. "Now, I look at him with a little bit of a sense of humor, but I don't think he had a sense of humor."

He continued, "I don't want to be as serious as maybe he was when he made [In The Wee Small Hours], but I love the sound of it. I can get into the schmaltziness of it now."

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