MEN ‘Talk About Body’ // First Listen

MEN
‘Talk About Body’
(Columbia)

MEN, the Brooklyn based transgender trio and spawn of several separate musical projects, are to release their first album ‘Talk About Body’ early in 2011. Achieving success with their first single, ‘Credit Card Babies’, the act – consisting of core members JD Samson (Le Tigre), Micheal O’Neill (Ladybug Transistor) and Ginger Brooks Takahashi (LTTR) are renowned for their liberated and political content and their visually energetic live performances. ‘Talk About Body’ sees MEN attempt to translate this energy onto record with their debut album, Harrison Boddy takes us through, track by track…

‘Life’s Half Price’
Instantly exploding with a blend of genres spanning electronica to disco and everything in-between, ‘Life’s Half Price’ pounds with house drums and 70’s funk guitar. A minute in, and the song bursts into life with the aid of some hypnotic chanting vocals. Weeping guitar melodies bounce off crunchy riffs before the verse introduces a somewhat introspective vocal passage. “I’ve lost myself plenty of times/My friends can’t afford to warn me/That the world is falling down around me” begins singer JD Samson before screaming “I’m not your baby’s daddy – Free Love!” in what is a powerful ending to the introduction to the album.

‘Off Our Backs’
The band’s second single kicks off with minimalistic guitars, fuzz bass and outer-wordly synths. The vocals take to the forefront in the verses, before, in the mid-section, a wailing guitar screams in a distorted frenzy. “I’m/A tease/We’re flipping can’t you see?” belts JD, until the song mellows into a section composed of spacey-sounding synth loops and chugging funk guitar with Mike O’Neill introducing himself with the distant haunting vocal “your rocks are heavy” buried underneath Samson’s defiant exclamations. The track comes to a halt with a short guitar riff that ends somewhat abruptly.

‘Credit Card Babies’
MEN’s first single staggers into life with a pitch-altered drum-roll, making an intro so pop that it could have been influenced by an Ace Of Base tune. The 90s synth pop feel is quickly exploded though, as the vocals burst the nostalgia bubble. “I’ve gotta fuck my best/To get a little tiny baby” a satirical Samson sings. Despite the song’s abrasive lyrical choices throughout, the chorus pleads with friends to join the band for a “Newborn Gay Creation” in an innocently-sung child-like melody accompanied with ska guitar and pulsating, glitchy synthesisers. 

‘Boom Boom Boom’
Showcasing the band’s heavier side, ‘Boom Boom Boom’ begins with a distorted stadium rock guitar, a precursor to the powerful anti-war message contained in the lyrics: “Buy me a government sewing machine/Don’t give me another war” Samson demands in the verse while instrumentation paints a morbid picture – it’s certainly no coincidence that the kick drum sounds like an artillery cannon. ‘Boom Boom Boom’ is a cleverly-crafted new age punk song that ends with Samson repeating the title line as a menacing guitar rings out to a close. It’s as close as this album gets to a sonic armageddon.

‘Take Your Shirt Off’
‘Take Your Shirt Off’ penetrates your ears with Samson repeatedly to-and-froing “Take your shirt off, don’t take your shirt off” – a vocal hook that’s bizarrely infectious. Delicate instrumentation alongside this makes Samson’s talent step into the limelight with her vocal performance. 

‘Who Am I To Feel So Free’
Unrestricted by any genre-defining, ‘Talk About Body’ takes you down an indie route just when you’ve gotten comfortable in your electro listening chairs. However, the chorus explodes, blending dance, punk and rock to achieve a truly mesmerising hook. This is followed by Samson frantically wailing the song’s title into the outro.

‘Make It Reverse’
Glitchy synthesisers mix ‘Make It Reverse’ up with funk rock rhythms as singer Samson repeatedly proclaims “You and I must make it reverse”. The song flaunts a 90’s influence once again with modern quirks, making it a fresh-yet-nostalgic tune.

‘Simultaneously’
The album’s longest track starts with tribal drumming and an ethereal choir of melodic guitars in what proves to be one of ‘Talk About Body’’s softer songs. Its placement in the tracklisting is perfect, allowing you to relax and revel in melodious glory of the instrumentation and rejoice in JD’s Karen O-styled tremor.

‘If You Want Something’
Following ‘Simultaneously’, ’If You Want Something’ has you back on your feet boogieing to an exceedingly groovy bass line. Samson sings you into a trance, echoing “If you want something/Well now you’re gonna get it”. All the while guitars play ball with reverberant lines that evolve with the rest of the instrumentation into a rawer, harder sound towards the songs closing. 

‘Rip Off’
The shamelessly named ‘Rip Off’ sees the band take honour in revealing their influences and creative processes in a four minute number that quite easily sums up what the band’s about just through lyrical content. “Attempting to fuse post punk guitars/With disco and funk rhythms/Rather in the manner of The Gang Of Four” states Samson in the first verse, before going on to describe both The Gang’s and their own creative style. All this lyrical curtain drawing is placed on a bed of 80s style drums and guitar reminiscent of David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’.

‘My Family’
The album’s penultimate song is another showcasing of the band’s diverse instrumental style, with driving, distorted guitars meshing with a variety of synth sounds and four-to-the-floor house drums. ‘My Family’ is both a song that you can rock out or dance to, and serves as a great predecessor to the album’s finale.

‘Be Like This’
Much in the same fashion as ‘My Family’, ‘Be Like This’ manifests MEN’s wide array of influences. Guitar solos share the stage with synth riffs whilst Samson croons the hook “…but if you know me know/That we’re gonna try and live again… and it’s gonna be like this” reaffirming her ability to be able to get a chorus stuck deep in the head. But it doesn’t stop there; “Is it thunder/Outside that I hear/Or is it an aeroplane?/‘Cos nothing is working/Not even a little bit” echo over intensifying instrumentation that culminates with two guitars mirroring each other as the song, and album, draws to a close.

MEN ‘Talk About Body’ will be reviewed in a future issue of The Fly