Needles & Grooves AotM /// Vol. 45 – March 2023 /// The Men - New York City

TenderLovingKiller® said:
So, what does everyone think?

Do you enjoy The Men?

Are you familiar with previous albums?

What do you think about this record?

I am curious to get your takes on this months Album selection.
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I only own Open Your Heart as well, and “Candy” off that record is such a great Deadesque track. I also really loved New Moon but I have only peripherally followed the following albums. Excited to dive into this one (and backtrack to the last ones) more thoroughly
 
Wes C. Attle said:
I only own Open Your Heart as well, and “Candy” off that record is such a great Deadesque track. I also really loved New Moon but I have only peripherally followed the following albums. Excited to dive into this one (and backtrack to the last ones) more thoroughly
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Yeah, I would say New Moon and Open Your heart are probably my favorites also but Leave Home and Tomorrow’s Hits are both excellent as well depending on my mood. I had kinda checked out after Tomorrow’s Hits but I thought 2020’s Mercy was excellent which inspired me to go back and give Devil’s Music and Drift a listen and while those albums sound completely different they were both quite good.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Well shit.

That’s what I get for assuming that a New Release would be available everywhere. I checked a few Canadian retailers, Discogs, and eBay.ca and came up empty. Does Rough Trade or Fuzz Club not ship to Canada? I could check with @Ethos99 and see if he could secure some copies.
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Oh yeah, most places ship (I originally had the typo "shit" there.. I really should have left it) to us no problem. It just ends up a little cheaper if it's in-country. My various locals seems to not have it yet either (Aux33Tours, Encore, Le Noise) and Juno UK (which I like to bundle stuff from) was out last I checked. It'll show up I'm sure. I should check my local-locals in Ottawa too.
 
Turbo said:
Oh yeah, most places ship (I originally had the typo "shit" there.. I really should have left it) to us no problem. It just ends up a little cheaper if it's in-country. My various locals seems to not have it yet either (Aux33Tours, Encore, Le Noise) and Juno UK (which I like to bundle stuff from) was out last I checked. It'll show up I'm sure. I should check my local-locals in Ottawa too.
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Maybe they are still waiting on their shipment? My local has it in stock but I ordered it from Rough Trade and they said they are still waiting for their shipment to arrive from the UK.
 
Why I chose The Men - New York City for N&G's March Album of the Month.
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Why I chose this album:

I signed up to choose a N&G AotM probably 3 years ago at this point and I’ve been thinking about what I would choose ever sense. I thought about choosing some hip-hop since it’s sorely lacking in these AotM selections. I thought about perhaps Souls of Mischief’s 93 til Infinity…

or Brand Nubian’s One For All…

but ultimately decided against it as I figured I should choose an album that represented myself wholly and as much as I love Hip-Hop I am still a Rock & Roll guy through and through.

I had a few other albums on my shortlist, my mind first went to Little Wings - Light Green Leaves…

which is my favorite album by lo-fi folk weirdo Kevin Fields and the album itself has an interesting history it but I don’t think that album is currently in print unfortunately. My next thought was Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s debut album, Broom…

Which is an excellent indie pop album, but since last month’s excellent selection was Wowee Zowee I felt as though Broom would be a worth selection, it was a bit too similar and is dwarfed in comparison. So I decided to go another way. I decide to go with The Men, they have both been consistently brilliant and criminally overlooked, their versatility (within the scope of modern Indie Rock music) is something that really speaks to me. Initially I was thinking about choosing one of their more critically lauded albums (probably Open Your Heart or New Moon) but I knew they had a new album dropping at the beginning of the month and I really loved the singles I’d heard, New York City rocks both fast and loose; so I figured what the fuck, maybe those of you that haven’t kept up with their recent albums might give it a go and since it’s a new release it should be available pretty much everywhere.

New York City stands out within The Men’s discography, it consistently rocks harder than anything they’ve released recently but even compared to their earlier noisier output, this record is a different breed. Previous heavier albums came at it from a Post-Hardcore or No Wave, Sonic Youth-esque style whereas this new one is more Raw Power style Proto-Punk and Garage Rock influenced.

Since it’s release, I have listened to it several time (though I am still waiting on my Rough Trade exclusive vinyl that a pre-ordered over a month ago) and while the album has an initial visceral excitement bakes into it it also offers up enough pathos that New York City keeps drawing me back for more. The Men’s latest album, the bands ninth overall, might be seen as a “comeback” album by some but in truth The Men don’t have anything to “comeback” from. They’ve consistently made very good to great albums through out their run, some folks had just stopped paying attention.
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