New Moon
*New Moon* opens up with a tune that sounds like something Wilco or The Jayhawks might have done in their formative years—bringing The Men\'s fans to ask, what gives? The countrified melody and plucky guitar, mandolin, and piano on “Open the Door” jaunt along like a confident charlatan in a roomful of over-boozed innocents. Are they toying with us? Nah. They’re just pushing boundaries, and on their fourth album, The Men force back the edges song by song. The next tune, “Half Angel Half Light,” saunters a bit more aggressively (as if our charlatan is hurriedly *leaving* the over-boozed and bamboozled crowd) before the record tumbles open full bore with the clamorous “Without a Face.” They take a step back to tumbleweed town on the White Fences–ish “Seeds” before pushing the pedal to the floor for a little Crazy Horse homage on “I Saw Her Face.” When the pummeling, bruising “The Brass” explodes in a rage of glorious fury, it’s so profoundly visceral you might need to sit down. Honestly, what can’t these guys do? We like ‘em best when they scare the heck out of us on songs like “The Brass” and “Supermoon,” but it’s all amazing.
With their fourth full-length album released in as many years, The Men proudly present the sweeping New Moon, the most intensely personal and immersive installment yet. Never content to draw on the same methods twice, nor to recline under the heel of expectation, The Men quit the city in early 2012 to head for Big Indian, NY - transforming a remote Catskills locale into a full-fledged stray dog studio home. Entering with only the most skeletal sketches, the house was selected as an incubator for its technical limitations.
The Men's follow-up to 2011’s Leave Home and last year’s Open Your Heart is a deeper and more mature record steeped in rock signifers; it shows the difference between respecting tradition and being boring, between quieting down and going soft, between being earnest and being sappy.
Reading too much into a band’s name is often a fool’s errand, and that goes double for a band with a handle as generic as The Men. But there’s something intriguing about the way that name has changed connotations over the past couple years. The group’s first two albums, Immaculada and Leave Home, erected a nearly…
At times quite captivating and as rowdy, New Moon is ultimately an album half-full of both indelible sonic fury and equally forgettable missteps.
The Men don’t sound especially like Dinosaur Jr., at least not any more than they do a half dozen or so other rock bands…
On their fourth album in as many years, the Men are fast becoming one of the more prolific bands in indie rock, and though New Moon might be a mellower affair than their previous work, they show no signs of slowing down.
These are the words of the Minutemen spokesman Mike Watt, but it might as well be the Men talking.
Review Of The Men 'New Moon'. New Moon was engineered by band member and multi-instrumentalist Ben Greenberg. New Moon is available on Sacred Bones Records.
The Men - New Moon review: now with 90% more antagonistically pleasant piano