Gossip – Music for Men

I got a hold of their debut album, That’s Not What I Heard, from one of my favorite label, Kill Rock Stars, a few years later… by that time they had dropped the “the” part of their name and became simply Gossip, starting with their 2002 EP Arkansas Heat.

Ever since I discovered Britpop, I have been keeping an eye on
UK pop music, and I can tell you that Gossip is huge in the UK. This
was quite evident with their last album, Standing in the Way of Control, which had a huge buzz overseas, where their song, “Standing in the Way of Control”, became the theme song of the British show Skins. The album instantly hit #1 on the UK Indie Charts.

With mass appeal,especially in the UK, the band recently signed with
major label Sony Music (under the Music With a Twist umbrella). Their
major debut is called Music for Men
and it was released last Tuesday on CD and digital in the UK. As for
the US, you can legally purchase the album last Tuesday – but the
physical CD won’t be available in the US until October 6^th on Columbia Records.
I am assuming around that time, you’ll get to see the band on their
promotional tour dates. As of this writing, there is one sole New York
date.

So what is it about this three piece from Olympia, Washington, that’s so appealing? I will ask you: what’s not to love?

First off, their lead singer, Beth Ditto, is unabashedly
lesbian, proud of her weight, and unapologetically outspoken. To be
honest, none of that really matters to me, because I just enjoy
hearing her vocals.

Second, backed with bassist (but will occasionally play
guitars), Brace Paine, and drummer, Hannah Blilie, their songs comes
off as raw, but always with a jerky dance groove.

Compared to Gossip’s earlier work (especially on their first few EPs),
they have gone from a sort of rockabilly soul to simply disco soul. I
also felt Music for Men
to be very polished and each sound can be heard loud and clear. This is
possibly due to that the majority of the album was written and recorded
at the Shangri-La studio in Malibu, a first-class studio that Ditto admitted “the first time we ever had access to a studio like that”.

I think it’s a great direction for the band, because it gives
us the opportunity to hear more of Ditto’s soulful pipes and hear every
bass and drum beat. Also, I felt that the disco/synth plays a more
important role in Music for Men, compared to their earlier works.

Some stand-out tracks is the love song “Love and Let Love” (I just really love hearing “It’s a long way until February“)
and “2012”. I don’t know if you knew about the end of the world, but
according to the Mayans, they seem to think it ends on December 21^st, 2012. This will shed some light on Gossip’s song “2012”, which sings and dance and celebrate as if the year is 2012.

I don’t know what the Gossip’s next single will be, but I would guess
it would be something poptastic and easy as “Pop Goes The World” since
“Heavy Cross” was released as the lead-single for the album.

If you’re in the UK, you’re in luck as the album is available
to buy right now and that, also, they’re doing all the major festivals.
For US fans, just wait a little bit longer – or if you’re impatience,
the MP3s are available on iTunes and amazon (both stores sells the full album for $8).