Tracks
Man Man: "Engwish Bwudd"
(2006)
By Dom Sinacola | 11 January 2008
Man Man’s back!...and not much has changed. OK, this pains me to say, but this new stuff is damn disappointing. I don’t want to overstep my bounds just yet; Six Demon Bag’s release isn’t scheduled for another month, and Man in the Blue Turban With a Face is one of my favorite records from the past couple years, a crazed and immediate chomp of pop weirdness. For now, at least, “Engwish Bwudd” continues the hearty jangle of Turban’s feel, but the problem’s in how concise the band’s become.
The lyrics are cheeky and warped, joining a little boy as he’s stolen from his mother by a seagull, raised to herd elephants by a pack of wild hyenas, and conflicted with domestic matters. This is Man Man at its carelessly nonsensical best, and Honus Honus’s voice still wields a muscular wollop. The glaring disappointment comes when the song makes sense. Gone is the surprise, the disparate parts sounding disparate, the ragged ends of cacophony carving out melody. Before there was the natural evolution of noise that shouldn’t have sounded natural but did, now the excitement of Turban has toned down. “Bwudd” is all digestible and living in the multi-armed shadow of its debut. The chorus is annoying, the horn at the bridge too predictable, the eccentricity winding down into cutesiness. The illogic has firmed, and we’re all doomed for it.
The lyrics are cheeky and warped, joining a little boy as he’s stolen from his mother by a seagull, raised to herd elephants by a pack of wild hyenas, and conflicted with domestic matters. This is Man Man at its carelessly nonsensical best, and Honus Honus’s voice still wields a muscular wollop. The glaring disappointment comes when the song makes sense. Gone is the surprise, the disparate parts sounding disparate, the ragged ends of cacophony carving out melody. Before there was the natural evolution of noise that shouldn’t have sounded natural but did, now the excitement of Turban has toned down. “Bwudd” is all digestible and living in the multi-armed shadow of its debut. The chorus is annoying, the horn at the bridge too predictable, the eccentricity winding down into cutesiness. The illogic has firmed, and we’re all doomed for it.