Ahh, The Men. When I say that back in 2012 I thought these guys were the next big thing in Indie Rock, trust me I did. I first got introduced to them through their "Leave Home" album. At the time, I was really into a bunch of super noisy garage punk bands. Hearing "Leave Home" was completely eye opening for me, their energy and sheer punk/noise rock force was everything I wanted to hear at the time. But Brooklyn's The Men didn't stop their, in 2012 they released their breakout album, "Open Your Heart". On "Open Your Heart", The Men took their great energy, turned down the noise, started writing catchier hooks, but surprisingly didn't give up a single ounce of what made them great to begin with. But if you listened to "Open Your Heart", you were right in the line of fire to see just how ambitious The Men seriously were. Not only were they performing their gutsy sort of Post Punk, they were beginning to bring in sounds of Americana and Alternative Country, an odd addition to their hectic sound. But they made it work wonderfully. They continued this branching off in 2013 with "New Moon" and their "Campfire Songs" EP. "Campfire Songs" was a pretty solid set of acoustic tunes, some which ended up on "New Moon", but showed their continue growing interest in Country and Americana. By the time "New Moon" came around, The Men had almost completely outgrown their noise rock roots and were going for a more straight up punk sound, still heavily going into Americana and Alternative Country territories. While some started to not understand The Men's music anymore, I Still went absolutely crazy for their sound, with "New Moon" containing some of my favorite Men song (namely "Half Angel Half Light" and "The Seeds". That being said though, I do understand that some fans of The Men were seriously getting sick and tired of this new direction they were going in, something I got a little more of a taste of on "Tomorrow's Hits". This album showed The Men focusing much more on piano rock instead of anything really heavy, and while their were still fantastic moments, I was starting to get a little confused on what The Men were even going for anymore. So here we are a few years later now with "Devil Music". Honestly, I loved the thought of The Men going down a darker path, and the artwork for this looked pretty sick. And on top of all of that, I heard from long times fans that this was much heavier, so lets dive in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGEYmnCUTeA
(THE FEELS!!!! I literally have so many good memories with The Men's earlier albums.)
“Dreamer” starts this album off, and it doesn't waste a single second blasting off either. Right off the bat, if you’ve been following The Men like I have, you’ll notice this is easily the harshest thing they’ve done since way back on “Leave Home”. The Men clearly went for a more muddy production in order to attract back some of their old fans that have labeled them as going soft, and for the most part, it works. “Dreamer” is heavy on the noise and distortion, but it doesn’t come off sloppy. The vocals too are totally enjoyable, a little bizarre, but completely enjoyable. There’s kinda a soul aspect to the singing during the verses, which is totally strange up against just how noisy everything else is. But it all works really nicely, that strangely melodic chorus works too. The Men are clearly back at their noisiest and most abrasive. It comes off so well though, like The Men never really missed a step. Anyone who really thinks these guys have gone soft needs to hear this ASAP. “Dreamer” is a great, energetic start. “Crime” is up next, one of the first tracks released from “Devil Music”. Personally, it’s not for me, and almost made me steer clear of this album entirely. It clearly has the same energy as the rest of the album, but “Crime” really lacks when it comes to being melodic. The Men are at their best when they get a really good balance of raw punk energy and melodic hooks, and “Crime” certainly isn’t melodic. The rougher vocals are a huge plus, and they don’t come off badly at all, and if you like The Men at their noisiest you’re gonna find TONS to love here. For me though, “Crime” is all energy and no substance. It doesn’t even come off as a throwback, it just sounds like The Men mudding up their sound to come off as heavy, it’s just a little disappointing. “Lions Den” a few tracks later introduces us to the bluesier side of The Men, which honestly is shown off better later on in the album. On “Lions Den” we start off with these seriously ugly guitar tones that quickly liven up into what may be the most chaotic sound I’ve ever heard from them. The riff here is constantly moving, and really pretty hard to keep track of. It all sort of whizzes by and comes off as kinda blurry. “Lions Den” comes off as spontaneous in nature and there are going to be tons of people that eat that up. The guitars are giving off so much feedback it’s almost gross, it’s just a little too messy for my liking. However, I do like the whole chaotic feel to this one, and the harmonica floating through the back seriously makes it even more unpredictable. Overall though, I want to praise this record, I think The Men are seriously on to something with a lot of this material, so let me get this one last ugly track out of the way so I can talk about how solid this is. “Violate” starts off again with these massive feedback guitar tones, with enough fuzz and distortion to make Ty Segall himself blush. It’s just sort of ugly though, and trust me I dig noisy rock, but only when it pays off in the end. “Violate” continues to lumber on pretty slowly, to the point where it doesn’t even sound like The Men really. It does however pick up nicely with some really enjoyable gritty vocals. The instrumental though sort of never goes anywhere which kinda sucks, it comes off sounding like a mush of about 20 other noise rock bands. Plenty are seriously going to dig the brute force of these tracks though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqRgAniDQUk
While most of this album starts off with much heavier, abrasive material, most of the best moment’s on “Devil Music” come from this slick blues influence The Men go for. “Patterns” probably sticks out to me the most. This one starts off with a ridiculous groove and funky yet soulful riff. After all the pummeling and chaos of the first few tracks, this is actually a nice little toss up. We forget just how good The Men are at adapting to different sounds on the fly, that’s what made their early work so darn interesting, and “Patterns” is such a great example of that. Everything here comes off so bluesy and soulful, this is absolutely the sound they should be clinging too for dear life. While it’s still very current sounding, there’s an old time blues feeling to this that I haven’t heard in quite some time. Even the vocals come off so raspy, everything on “Patterns” just works so well. Also, some of those old time blues records from the 40’s and 50’s were just so damn dark in their own way. The Men to an extent even take care of that, as “Patterns” seemingly has this thick veil over the entire performance, and not just on this track, the entire album. Not to mention, while “Patterns” retains it’s composure on the surface, deep down their’s a strong sense of chaos. I seriously think while “Devil Music” is far from perfect, The Men are seriously on to something that may lead to the best material they’ve released in years. The bass on “Patterns” is borderline hypnotic, and The Men prove that seriously they can ride a groove like the best of them. Hell, if you listen closely enough, you can even make out a little bit of that Alt-Country sound that they’ve been toying with forever. If fans of “Open Your Heart” want to listen to a single track from “Devil Music”, make it “Patterns”, digging this so damn much. “Ridin’ On” has the fierceness and explosive nature of some of the intro tracks to “Devil Music”, but with some very necessary slight changes. Right off the bat, these are clearly some of the most melodic guitars you’re going to find here. That alone gives “Ridin’ On” tons of character, at least more than some of the more explosive tracks that started us off here. Once again we see The Men bringing in a slight southern flair, which trust me I’ll never be upset to hear from these guys. However what makes this different is, once again, this veil of darkness over everything here seemingly. The vocals on “Ridin’ On” are some of the most twisted things I’ve heard all year. They’re distorted beyond belief, and you’re forced to constantly try and make out a single word of what The Men are remotely getting at. It’s bizarre, but it honestly sounds like Devil Music, or what I would expect that to sound like at least. Some of the performances on “Ridin’ On” come off like a damn cult is performing, but that doesn’t stop it from being melodic when it needs to be, making for a really intense performance. “Hit The Ground” once again shows The Men getting into some seriously bluesy stuff, and that harmonica in the background seriously makes it even more memorable. However, the production here is seriously starting to get to me. Trust me, I enjoy The Men when they’re at their grimiest, but some of these tracks are just way too muddy for me to even enjoy. It gets to the point where the solos here are actually being masked by the sheer amount of distortion. All of that being said, I still think The Men are slowly getting back on track.
Starting off the album’s last few tracks is the album’s title track, “Devil Music”. It’s a short acoustic instrumental, but I think it does a lot here for The Men. While it’s an acoustic track, I can’t shake but seriously get some ominous vibes from it. Listening to this, I feel like I’m sitting in an old time saloon and a mysterious drifter just walked in, and no one can tell what his intentions are. It’s a short track, but it certainly takes me back to the simpler times of The Men, listening to their “Campfire Songs” EP and such. Up next, “Gun” shows The Men getting back to their bluesier sounds, and my God is it awesome. The steady groove here and those distant guitars absolutely bleed emotion, for fans of The Men’s more country sounding material, check this out ASAP. While tracks like this make it sound like The Men have gone Low-Fi on us, all of the elements that made them one of Indie’s fastest rising stars are right there. “Gun” however isn’t as dark as other tracks here, this one on the other hand is overwhelmingly sad. The vocal performance here just sounds so absolutely exhausted, sounding like they barely have any will to go on. Even the backing vocals here are so drained. “Gun” overall is absolutely stunning, The Men seriously need to clean up their production and go for a more somber Americana album and I’m 100% sold. Finally we have “Fire”, which has a slow start, borderline a sludge metal feel. Once again, these vocals sound absolutely exhausted, which goes great with the slow burning feel of this track. “Fire” eventually straightens up into a more noisy track from The Men which is ok. Personally, I DO like when The Men get all noisy on us, but I feel like the bluesier sounds they’ve been testing the waters with are seriously the way to go. “Fire” is far from bad though, and as far as a performance goes it’s one of the most passionate here. Also, things really quickly on this one have taken a HUGE step in the darker direction. We went from bluesy, somber Americana tracks to The Men screaming about “moving into the fire” and “giving in to desires”. It’s a powerful ending, not the most memorable track here, but The Men are definitely cooking here.
Rating: 7.3/10
Give A Listen To: “Dreamer”, “Ridin’ On”, “Patterns”, “Gun”
Overall Thoughts: Well this certainly is the loudest thing we've heard from The Men probably ever. While it gets just a little too muddy from time to time, I think this is going to bring back a ton of fans that The Men have lost in the last year or so. Also, here we see The Men drifting off into some serious new realms of blues and a more somber Americana than their used to. "Devil Music" is far from perfect, but it shows The Men moving in the right direction.
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