Customer Reviews

Never Born to Follow

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

From the kick-off with 'The Eye' you know this is going to be something special. As usual with TMTCH there are many flavours to this album. You get some great country style rocking in the vein of The Birds and Gram Parsons with the title track 'Never Born to Follow' and 'House of Cards'. `To Have and To Hold' and `Our Day' pull at your heart strings and `Gangland' makes you want to get down into the mosh pit. Another great album by a largely overlooked band from the UK.

This is the best Men album since the excellent and irreplaceable Domino Club (sadly out of print) and perhaps it's equal. `Our Day' is a lament for the working man that is as moving as it is true, the countrified title track is a homage to the bands California Sound roots and is actually better than the excellent Byrds original. `Gangster' is fully as good as superb, tough talking tracks from Domino Club like "The Lion And The Unicorn' and `Family Way'. Those tracks alone are worth the price of the album, as for the rest, it's just as excellent. The Men make fine, Celtic folk/punk that is part Pogues and part New Model Army. One of the best bands from across the ocean, albums by tMTCH are not so much listened to as they are savored. Buy them all.

The Men they Couldn't Hang split in the early 90s and then returned for this 1996 release. While the peerless harmonies and crashing guitars are immediately recognizable, the celtic influence is toned down in favor of the country rock and roll aspects that have always been there. As such, this makes a great intro to the band for those that prefer the accented style. For the celtophiles, the first few listens might seem a bit disappointing, even if one can get past the sad truth that the title cut is a lacklustre cover of a boring tune from the late 60s, and "the Eye" perpetuates the band's penchant for opening albums with drawn out numbers (the Crest from Waiting for Bonaparte was another example). But "Glittering Prize" is a dandy, a succinct lyrical and musical statement augmented by a killer horn line; "Dennis Law and Ali McGraw" is a delightfully affectionate reflection on the 70s culture from a band that didn't see the light of day until well into the next decade; and "Our Day" shows the quiet protest song is still alive and well. Two shorter largely acoustic numbers, "To Have and To Hold" and "House of Cards" provide further contrast and proof that this version of the Men is as artistically sound as any that came before. If you are wondering what happened after, "Big Six Pack" is best avoided but "Cherry Red Jukebox" is a return to form and even to their Emerald roots.

The title track is typically brilliant of the band's driving folk rock idiom but the rest of the album seems to hover around the banal. Does not reach the amazing heights of 'Waiting for Bonaparte' but is a worthy addition to your collection.