MEN, the art/music collective formed by
Le Tigre's J.D. Samson, formed in 2007 but didn’t release their debut album,
Talk About Body, until four years later. However, it’s clear that the band -- which also features Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Michael O’Neill and Samson's
Le Tigre bandmate Johanna Fateman as a collaborator -- spent that time well, honing its sound and message into something equally appealing and radical. Given
MEN's pedigree, it’s not surprising that the band’s kinetic fusion of disco, punk, indie rock, and synth punk echoes not only
Le Tigre, but also
Peaches (with whom Samson toured as part of her live band),
the Gossip, and
Chicks on Speed -- all groups of women and men who don’t conform to prescribed gender roles or expectations. However,
Talk About Body has a much more polished sound than most of those other acts’ output, all the better to balance
MEN's often blunt lyrics. “My life! My crime! My gift to you is a mercy fuck!,” Samson wails on the album’s opening salvo, “Life’s Half Price.” On the fiery “Boom Boom Boom,” which recalls a more approachable version of
Chicks on Speed's attacks on the status quo, she demands government-sponsored sewing machines instead of another war, and capitalism, cold hard cash, and the disturbing ease with which people are turned into commodities are frequent targets on
Talk About Body. Yet the album is much more than a women’s studies course pack set to music. Even the title attempts to bridge the gap between the mental and the physical, between thinking and dancing. “Take Your Shirt Off” pairs a booty-shaking beat with ambivalent words, while “Off Our Backs” flips the title of lesbian erotica magazine On Our Backs and channels some of
Le Tigre's joyfully subversive spirit. And just when
Talk About Body threatens to become strident,
MEN show their vulnerable and sentimental sides with songs like the anthemic “Simultaneously” and shout-outs to influences and loved ones like “My Family” and “Rip Off,” which name-checks
Gang of Four and Orange Juice. A firebrand debut album,
Talk About Body celebrates the struggle and freedom in defying easy classification. ~ Heather Phares