Leave Home - The Men

The Men sounds rather sexist to me, but they have arrived with an impeccable record with raw roots.

Nowadays, the world's listeners are pulled to a sound that is mostly synthetic and artificial, straying away from the organic. Instrumentation is favorably created in the tradition of synthpop while the sounds more strongly influenced by an older generation of music are starting to deteriorate. But then there are bands like the Men, who have created a real record with notes that have a meaning and power to them that strikes empathy and a desire to listen many times.

Leave Home's opener, "If You Leave...," is an eery, prolonged tune that maintains a soft ringing for its first minutes. It's bothersome to disturb it; it's best just to sit back and absorb the cushioned feedback and the choppy staccato of the guitar riff that follows. Then the Men flex about three minutes in to bring a face-melting roar of power chords comparable to Sebadoh III's heavier tracks. The transition is mildly cliché, but nonetheless it's sonically attractive-- at this point the energy you absorbed during the song's introduction is now being exerted freely.

“Lotus” and “Think” follow, abandoning long introductions. These songs are rock to their core. “Think” in particular has a touch of something even heavier, whereas in the song's middle it becomes increasingly disorienting with a touch of horn-like vocals that could probably even double as a means of soloing as well. “Think,” with its clear elements of thrash metal, is easily representative of where hardcore stands today.

Things get a tad more peculiar, and less straightforward. “L.A.D.O.C.H.” stands almost as a drum-and-bass tune that just happens to have guitar-- and it is absolutely irritating. In its lagging and squeals it somehow grapples the ears with curiosity, making a listener investigate the source of the musical and lyrical instability of the track. In other words, it truly pulls you in. The lyrics that can be caught are uh, intriguing: “The bringer of everything, nothing is here to stay” is screamed in various forms, sometimes followed by pure vocal honesty in the forms of a cough and/or a gasp for air. “L.A.D.O.C.H.” is merely a break in the album's mostly fast-paced nature, as “( )” and my personal favorite “Bataille” pound through afterwards with mimicking, mosh worthy riffs on bass and guitar.

It's interesting that this record is largely instrumental given the mighty emphasis placed on the group's vocals, er, screeches. The instrumental qualities of the record however show the band's dynamic character. Case-in-point-- Leave Home's second-to-last track, “Shittin' With the Shah.” This is an abrupt transition from “Bataille” which comes before as it is much more relaxes, but as the Men chill out on this song they are able to showcase broader influences in their music such as garage and early rock 'n' roll. The Men then come back from the break room, as they did similarly coming back from “L.A.D.O.C.H.,” to finish off Leave Home with “Night Landing,” a static punk rage with a tincture of fitting spacey guitar effect.

On Leave Home, The Men have a record that may be harder than what many ears have been accustomed to in the field of independent rock music, which could be met with some pester for audiences. But nonetheless, the Men's authenticity is worth getting used to. 

Here is the opening track, "If You Leave...", off of Leave Home:

 

Here's my personal favorite song from Leave Home, "Bataille":