The Men – “Electric”

In Endless Playlist, Treble’s staff helps you stock your own playlists by highlighting the best new tracks to come across our desks, laptops and ipods each week.

Following the growth trajectory of The Men over their few releases is impressive. For being a few raucous rockers from Brooklyn, they’re increasingly exhibiting patience and an ear for minimalist melodies among the noise they bring. Recording their next LP in Big Indian was supposed to bring them closer to the “celestial,” and they claim the results are more personal than ever — “Electric” still sounds like a good ol’ punk romp to me.

Yet it comes across clearer; the noise isn’t an aesthetic trick of chord progressions masking or distorting the melody, it is the melody. And the way the vocals in the chorus ride that churning melody and the pace of the guitars through the verses and bridge — their composition may have gotten even better without losing any edge. These subtle melodic strengths bring out an almost, almost inviting quality that has most of the time heretofore been replaced by raw emotion and/or spaced-out songwriting.