Insecure Men

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The project of Fat White Family guitarist Saul Adamczewski and longtime friend Ben Romans-Hopcraft (frontman of the band Childhood), Britain's Insecure Men combine truckloads of homespun pop whimsy and pleasantly drippy psych-lite balladry on their self-titled debut. Initially conceived as a vehicle for the more ruminative material he'd been accruing, the album took shape while Adamczewski was in upstate New York working with Sean Lennon on their collaborative Moonlandingz project. Intrigued by the songs and approach, Lennon climbed on board as producer and helped to nurture the budding band's eccentricities and quirks. The resulting LP features a rather motley array of warped soft rock, exotica, lo-fi synth pop, and glam, which for the most part hangs together surprisingly well. Cheeky without being overly comic, the Men churn out catchy little vignettes like the breezy "Subaru Nights" and "All Women Love Me," striking an appealingly playful tone while rigging up some fairly sophisticated pop arrangements in the process. The bouncy, sax-stacked "Teenage Toy" has the laddish feel of a vintage Madness single, a vibe they later revisit on the slightly more Kinks-ian "The Saddest Man in Penge." The distressed faux-Polynesia of "Ulster" gives way to the '70s soft pop of "Cliff Has Left the Building" as they cycle through their jukebox of influences, giving the album an almost anthology-like feel. Not everything works quite so well, though, with tracks like the glammy "Mekong Glitter" and the instrumental "Heathrow" both hanging on long enough to outstay their welcome. Overall, though, Insecure Men's melting pot of pop is straight-up fun with some deceivingly clever craft to it. ~ Timothy Monger