Men Women & Children

Men Women & Children - Men Women & Children

Men Women & Children, whose line up includes former Glassjaw guitarist Todd Weinstock, may actually be some kind of joke (an impression that is hardly altered by the fact that the band members appear on the album sleeve dressed in animal costumes).

'Lightening Strikes Twice In New York' is pretty much the only stand-out track on the entire record, boasting a catchy (although subtly irritating) chorus and a nice guitar bit. 'Who Found Mister Fabulous' is quite enjoyable the first time you hear it, but gets increasingly annoying the more you listen to it. Otherwise, there isn't much to this album except monotonous synthetic sounds, simple drum-beats and cheesy, grating, falsetto choruses. Men Women & Children can be fairly described as uninteresting, unoriginal and actually quite grating.

Ever since Panic! At The Disco's sudden explosion into popularity, we've been waiting for a series of carbon copies to trail in the wake of their popularity - and finally here they are! But where Panic! produce catchy, confident tunes, Men Women & Children offer only fragmented, indistinct, disco-room floor mediocrity. Where Brendon Urie's Fall Out Boy-esque vocals make his band impressively danceable, TJ Penzone unspectacular voice renders his band impressively ignorable. And where Panic weave their way through intriguing, twisting, almost poetic lyrics, Men Women & Children resort to the chorus line "you don't need a reason to get out on the dance floor / and we can get it on and on all night long."

Although, in fairness, Men Women & Children probably sound more like Head Automatica than tour-buddys Panic! At the Disco. But unlike the catchy 'discocore', as it's apparently called, peddled by Head Automatica, Men Women & Children's album sound worryingly like a compilation of Girls Aloud B-sides with a male vocalist. Far be it for me to criticise Panic's choice of support band...but really.