Buried Handsome… Good looking, good listening
Review: Men Among Animals – Buried Handsome
Published on August 19th, 2013 | Jonny Abrams
A few years ago, Rocksucker went to Roskilde festival and came back, thanks to the recommendation of a friendly local, hooked on a psych-pop group by the name of Sterling. With Men Among Animals’s third album Buried Handsome, we feel like we’ve hit upon another such gem…and then some, even.
As much as we love the likes of Efterklang, it’s refreshing to hear a Danish band welcoming such a degree of playfully lysergic/lysergically playful sunshine into their sound.
“The Place You Counted On”, for instance, sounds like Bowie meets Tears For Fears with a rainbow bolted through the middle, while “Kathy” takes that formula and shoves The Polyphonic Spree in there for good measure.
It’s utterly sublime, euphoric pop smothered in luscious harmonies, drenched in sunny good vibes and home to some gloriously wibbly weird sounds.
Every bit as superb as its title, “Failures, Flaws, Regret and Remorse That Follow From Traditional Political Opportunism” blends The Flaming Lips with Secret Machines.
For its part, “They Build a Colony” brings to mind Elliott Smith and The Shins in strummy, ‘pared-back’ mode, whereas the vast-sounding “The Rise That Gave Us Away” stuns with its ‘tribal Beach Boys’ sunrise of a harmonic piley-on.
Lots of reference points springing to mind, then, and all of them stellar.
Buried Handsome then shifts quite suddenly into oddball yet oddly downcast electro on “Old Mr. Carson” and “Neighborhood”, reverting to type in time to show off the staggering, sunbeam-spewing benevolent monster that is “When You Smile”.
Experimental pop music is alive and well and has family in Denmark.
Rocksucker says: Four Quails out of Five!
Buried Handsome will be released on August 23rd through Tapete Records.
You can buy Buried Handsome on iTunes and on Amazon.
About the Author
Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.
