Half Angel Half Light – The Men
Bird Song – The Men
Everything by this band up until 2012 seemed to operate on the principle of ‘more guitars, more yelling, more fun.’ They were a big, brash, straightforward garage rock band, with all of the the joy that comes along from such projects.
That’s still very much an aspect of New Moon, which features some of the most bruisingly glorious rock and roll of the year. But as the title suggests, they’re moving in a new direction–the pure vitality is waning and a more folk-infused sensibility taking over.
You can hear them testing out the new waters on the very first track. Open the Door sounds more campfire hum than rock and roll. It sounds fresh out of 1972, and I mean that in the very best way. You almost can’t help but imagine this as a lost track from the Harvest Moon sessions.
But lest you get lulled into a gentle slumber, the next two tracks reach out to throttle your eardrums and remind you that this is a band that loves making noise. Half Angel, Half Light retains an acoustic guitar right at the front of the mix, but it does so seemingly for the sole purpose of proving that acoustic and still sound loud. And this is immediately followed by Without a Face, with a full-frontal harmonica and percussive assault. These tracks also sound like refugees from the 70s, but come more from the tradition of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Except with a squalling undercurrent that speaks far more to The Velvet Underground or the Jesus and Mary Chain.
But, you’re probably saying, I still want some no-holds-barred these-amps-go-to-11 rock and roll. Well, then you’ll be happy with the one-two punch of The Brass and Electric, which put adjectives like ‘blistering’ and ‘intense’ to shame.
Just as the opening three tracks really set the stage, the final three tie things all back together. Bird Song is another Neil Young-esque track, driven by an insistent drum line, a deceptively simple organ progression, and some soaring harmonica. Freaky is probably the most ‘punk’ sounding track on the record, and is also the shortest song at just over two minutes. Which then leads into the closer, the epic eight-minute trek that is Supermoon. I guess you might call it psychedelic-garage-rock?
For all the directions that this album pulls, it still manages to sound like a cohesive piece of work. It sounds like a band playing stuff that they love, and not worrying too much about what it all means. Which has always been one of the key ingredients of truly excellent rock and roll.