It's time to leave home and open your heart to a New Moon - the new record by The Men

01 Open the Door
02 Half Angel Half Light
03 Without a Face
04 The Seeds
05 I Saw Her Face
06 High and Lonesome
07 The Brass
08 Electric
09 I See No One
10 Birdsong
11 Freaky
12 Supermoon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4MKGz5c8p2M

Immaculada

new track is great, though it sounds like Turn It Around part 2.

WHAT HAPPENED?

this record redefines "unfocused":

Dinosaur Jr? Replacements? Stooges? Psych Rock? Springsteen?

every song sounds different, nothing that you havent heard before - but this guys know what they doing.

Pretty steep falloff IMO. Yikes.

Nostromo your description makes it sound like they turned into first album Ween.

I loved Open Your Heart at first but that love faded big time, tbh. I don't think it ended up in my top 50 of 2013.

Not sure this band is going in the right direction. But hey, it ain't my band.

i mean top 50 of 2012

first Ween album was funny and better.
but yeah, it does sound like a debut album of a new band trying to find their way , while actually it's their fourth.
xpost

the acoustic songs (half of the record) are plain and boring, but most of the rock stuff is strong.
(Supernoon is the highlight here imo.)

my humble advice for them would be to stick to what they do best.

I Saw Her Face, the Neil Young influenced song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zFbwU31NXIk

It's anxiety of influence in reverse with these guys. The previous album was vaguely, charmingly Replacements-influenced; this one is embarrassingly so.

Made the cover of the Village Voice.

http://media.villagevoice.com/8594041.87.jpg

Clicking the cover will take you to the story written by Eric Sundermann.

I Saw Her Face, the Neil Young influenced song:

haha yes

the sudden Tom Petty love (as oppose to, say, Butthole Surfers) explains it all.

look at this fucking picture

http://media.villagevoice.com/8593632.28.jpg

i like that they're constantly working, and by the time i've heard a record, their sound has moved in another direction completely...

e.g. ""Wait till you hear the next one," says Greenberg of the album's follow-up, which is already recorded but has yet to be named"

but it does make it difficult to get into them. i saw them play live almost immediately after open your heart came out and they played almost nothing from it or the older records. i think bands do need to work quickly these days if they want to maintain any kind of momentum they gain from a record, but i feel like the way they're developing, while just as lightning-quick as groups like ty segall or thee oh sees, doesn't reward any kind of long-term investment. does that make sense?

I really like this album! The copy I bought came with a 5 song CD of acoustic songs (three of which aren't on any of the albums), and it's pretty great.

I like the one with the electric piano.

I've moved from "I really like this album" to I love it. So many sneaky hooks.

Also this kind of rules:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX4lEIDg2ZU

The Fucked Up rip off on the album prior kind of squandered my excitement for the record but I do still enjoy others on it. Hadn't planned on checking out this new one, honestly. Should I?

This is really great. I wasn't sold on the first half at first, but it has really grown on me. Love these dudes.

which song is the Fucked Up ripoff?

i haven't been too big on their other albums but i'm into this, their songwriting has definitely gotten better

yeah, i really liked the last one too, but this one feels less like a guided tour through someone's (admittedly, really cool) record collection and more like a well composed album

What is it with all these fucking awful bandnames?

I saw them play night before last, and it was super different than the last time I saw them. The dude sitting in the chair in the pic above sang about 80% of the songs the first time I saw them, and the dude in the camo shirt behind him sang most of them this time. The rest of the songs were sung this time by the guy on the far left, who was playing a Rhodes piano, whereas last time he had been an extra guitarist. They also had a female bassist when I last saw them.

They jammed out a bunch of the songs - it all sounded much more consistent than the record does (and even more Neil Young), if that makes any sense (though I don't mind the diverse sounds and approaches on the LP). Camo shirt guy can pretty much shred.

which is the guy who sings "Seeds" and "Candy"?

which song is the Fucked Up ripoff?

― mizzell, Wednesday, March 20, 2013 12:14 PM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"Animal", in my opinion. Probably just being cynical. :/

this record owns

love this record

i somewhat miss the pure energy that a lot of open your heart had but there are more subtle pleasures to be had on this one

which is the guy who sings "Seeds" and "Candy"?

The guy in the chair...

I like the tracks that actually sound like the Men... overall a very confusing listen.

I think the more disparate the sounds and styles the more it sounds like The Men.

not really liking this. I was still pretty on board with Open Your Heart but preferred their sound circa Leave Home, not this watered down country rock stuff.

"Electric" is country rock? To me the thing sounds more like Time Fades Away than anything else in their catalog.

this sounds less obviously derivative to me than their last two albums. it's still derivative but in broader genre exercise sense than ripping off specific bands or songs.

Ha - the other frontman was wearing a Time Fades Away t-shirt at their gig last week!

open your heart was the real fall-off, everyone just slept on leave home and had to compensate

yeah this is good. would never think to call it watered-down

open your heart was the real fall-off, everyone just slept on leave home and had to compensate

otm

This band is verrrrry over and has been for almost two years.

lol

yes

fuck yes

theres prob not enough interest to do a poll thread but i would like to talk about fav songs if anyone feels like it. my fav song is "freaky"

"The Seeds" is so catchy-naif.

it is. i dig it lyrically too--one of the big steps up i noticed on this one (when i finally mapped out who sings what) is that chiericozzi wrote some really strong lyrics.

I filmed a song at Rough Trade a couple of months ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53QThTUX_TQ

I love this album, even when (especially when?) the lyrics go pretty corny, e.g. "I'm in a rock band now / and I'm on a roll"

It's such a good Summer album, I think - it got released too early.

when the road got rocky, rocky and rough

I don't get this record at all. Bands can evolve but they need to have some semblance of sounding like themselves. Also it's boring.

Love this. My favorite right now is Electric.

Bands can evolve but they need to have some semblance of sounding like themselves

let me blow your mind for a sec: what if this is the first album where they actually do sound like themselves?