Last year everyone seemed to rave about The Men‘s third LP, Open Your Heart. Makes sense. It’s a damn fine record. And, following the likes of Ty Segall, they’ve returned almost instantly with a follow-up. It’s called New Moon, and it’s absolutely beautiful.
The LP opens with the light swagger of “Open The Door” before jumping into the catchy, upbeat successor “Half Angel Half Light”, one of the album’s many pinnacles. From there, they take it up one more notch with the high-paced “Without A Face”.
New Moon is heartfelt, guttural rock music. It’s not abrasive, nor is it grating. It’s simply solid, fun, energetic. Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s the two overly full glasses of wine I’ve downed tonight, but DAMN! if this isn’t one of the finest records I’ve heard so far this year.
Fun is the operative word there. There’s no doubt about it; that word sums up this record. New Moon is as erratic and genre-busting as Open Your Heart, flirting with pop and rock and garage, changing tempos and styles and sounds, all happening concurrently throughout the twelve songs presented by The Men. It makes for a wildly fun ride.
Some will tout (and likely have in the past) that The Men aren’t a congruent, consistent band; and they’ll list it as a fault. But it’s not! To quote a co-worker who stated of me recently: I’m consistently inconsistent. Well, so are The Men! And they excel at it in a way that is truly brilliant.
About Open Your Heart, Consequence of Sound wrote:
While Open Your Heart is the kind of unabashed, ballbusting rock ‘n’ roll record that’ll have bloggers chomping at the bit–and it should–it is just odd enough for people to not know what to do with it.
Album Review: The Men – Open Your Heart [March 2012]
You get the same thing here, minus the instrumentals. “High And Lonesome” has an almost soft sound, and it’s followed by the pounding, raucous craziness of “The Brass”, which almost is abrasive!
Aaahhh — that guitar solo toward the end of “I Saw Her Face” is giving me chills right now! OK. Fuck it. I’m filling up for a third glass of red. Going to go into the living room and put my headphones on. This album needs my full attention.
New Moon arrived yesterday via Sacred Bones Records. Watch the music video for “I Saw Her Face” below.
Speaking of New Moon, 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the album, and I take a look back in the video below. You can also read the coverage here.