Greg Dona
03/05/06, 10:24 PM
Sometimes the hype that precedes a band’s full length debut can be detrimental to their existence as a group. Bands develop unthinkably extensive fan bases that have little idea what the group’s true sound will emerge as on a true album. PureVolume demos and MySpace clips lead listeners to believe that a band thrives on a certain style of music, but in reality their sound dwells in a totally different arena; when this fact surfaces in the group’s debut album, the ever-extensive but marginally loyal fan base bails.
Men Women and Children, however, deceives its listeners very little throughout the course of their self-titled release. The quintessential dance punk band, Men Women and Children opens with psychedelic twisting of noises before hitting the listener with energetic, charging guitars. These soon fade in favor of a repetitive, simple beat remaining relatively constant throughout the whole of the song. The rest of the album proceeds in a comparable fashion. A toe-tapping inducing beat is, it seems, consistently favored over more technical progressions throughout the course of the album. Although a variety of percussion, brass, and string instruments cameo briefly frequently, they play a subtle role in the whole picture that is Men Women and Children. Extremely simple guitar backgrounds also play second fiddle for the record. Electric sounds play a slightly more important role, but it is the vocal work that stands out more than any other aspect of the CD for Men Women and Children. Astonishingly accomplished voice control and impressively wide pitch ranges make the singing on the album an immediate success.
For the most part a focused, well-collected anthology, Men Women and Children meets its most intimidating proverbial hurdle in lyrical work. Scattered thoughts roam aimlessly on the disc; cries range from “let’s get into a fight tonight" to “we’re monkey monkey men, and we’ll eat all your friends” in consecutive tracks at one point on the CD.
Panic! at the Disco’s A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out stunned many listeners when, lo and behold, they weren’t quite as dance-oriented as the masses had pegged them as being pre-debut full length. This caused a substantial stir throughout the underground community. Ultimately, however, they managed to not only retain the vast majority of their fan base, but to expand upon it exponentially as well in their catapult to the top of the emo world. Expect to see a familiar scenario play out for the boys of Men Women and Children. We know what to expect; Men Women and Children led us to believe that with their first disc would come dance punk with outstanding vocals, repetitive guitar and percussion work, and electronic tidbits scattered throughout and they delivered.
Men Women and Children, however, deceives its listeners very little throughout the course of their self-titled release. The quintessential dance punk band, Men Women and Children opens with psychedelic twisting of noises before hitting the listener with energetic, charging guitars. These soon fade in favor of a repetitive, simple beat remaining relatively constant throughout the whole of the song. The rest of the album proceeds in a comparable fashion. A toe-tapping inducing beat is, it seems, consistently favored over more technical progressions throughout the course of the album. Although a variety of percussion, brass, and string instruments cameo briefly frequently, they play a subtle role in the whole picture that is Men Women and Children. Extremely simple guitar backgrounds also play second fiddle for the record. Electric sounds play a slightly more important role, but it is the vocal work that stands out more than any other aspect of the CD for Men Women and Children. Astonishingly accomplished voice control and impressively wide pitch ranges make the singing on the album an immediate success.
For the most part a focused, well-collected anthology, Men Women and Children meets its most intimidating proverbial hurdle in lyrical work. Scattered thoughts roam aimlessly on the disc; cries range from “let’s get into a fight tonight" to “we’re monkey monkey men, and we’ll eat all your friends” in consecutive tracks at one point on the CD.
Panic! at the Disco’s A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out stunned many listeners when, lo and behold, they weren’t quite as dance-oriented as the masses had pegged them as being pre-debut full length. This caused a substantial stir throughout the underground community. Ultimately, however, they managed to not only retain the vast majority of their fan base, but to expand upon it exponentially as well in their catapult to the top of the emo world. Expect to see a familiar scenario play out for the boys of Men Women and Children. We know what to expect; Men Women and Children led us to believe that with their first disc would come dance punk with outstanding vocals, repetitive guitar and percussion work, and electronic tidbits scattered throughout and they delivered.