Album Review

The Men – Tomorrow’s Hits

• 3rd Mar 2014

Jump on the train, it’s 1974 and Dark Waltz is where the story of The Men’s fifth album begins. The band from Brooklyn may have started out as a punk band, but Tomorrow’s Hits, released on March 3 is an altogether slicker rock and roll band, in control of an immaculate production from Sacred Bones Records.

It’s slick and well-produced affair, more regular, rolling rock than promised punk, but you can attribute part of that to the first time the band have produced a record in a “high-end” studios – Brooklyn’s Strange Weather.

Eight songs from 13 that had been initially created in founding member Mark Perro’s bedroom in Bushwick over three months in the winter of 2012 were finally chosen for the ambitiously named album. It sounds a cosy affair: Perro had removed all the furniture from his bedroom, except the bed, and replaced it with drums, pianos, a dozen or so guitars, and amplifiers. A horn section was added in the recording studios.

The locomotion of Dark Waltz is the groundwork for the rhythm that runs throughout, accompanied harmonicas and the like. Get What You Give trammels the same jaunty melody, this time with saxophone included. The same instrument offers the liveliness in Another Night.

And then the life and spirit of the punk band starts to break on through. Different Days and its alternative tagline, “I hate being young” offers a much-needed step up in pace. It paves the way for the most catchy and foot-tapping of the offerings: Sleepless is its name. Back comes the harmonica and all is well.

Pearly Gates raises the tempo and offers a rapid rattle as well as vocals that are reminiscent of Joe Strummer at his shouty and screamy best. The piano is the accompanying instrument of choice. All this excitement is tamed by Settle Me Down, but then restored on Going Down, which revives the steady and regular drive that prevails.

– Richard Jory

Venue: Tomorrow’s Hits
Support Band: Savage Bones