Fantastic new release from MAN MAN

It isn’t hard to pick Philadelphia’s Man Man out from the crowd of experimental acts currently cluttering the musical atmosphere of 2011.

For three albums now, Man Man has been producing high-energy, fiercely unique and original music. The band is known for their ecstatic, frantic and often chaotic live show in which the five members play an endless catalogue of instruments that includes saxophones, trumpets, marimbas and countless other trinkets and sound-makers. 

On their fourth album, “Life Fantastic,” Man Man has manned their live energy enough to fit it into the studio, producing an album that retains the spastic atmosphere of 2006’s “Six Demon Bag” without neglecting the song writing — something Man Man could be found guilty of doing on previous albums.

“Life Fantastic” shies away from the zany, spastic and occasionally overwhelming vibe of 2008’s “Rabbit Habits” for more classically pop oriented rhythms and melodies akin to something of a Wanda Jackson and Van Dyke Parks’ love child.

Songs such as “Steak Knives” and the title track, “Life Fantastic,” are eerie and powerful without slowing the album’s pace. “Piranhas Club,” the album’s highlight track, finds itself in an excited party space delicatley attending a melody that is new for the band. 

It’s refreshing to hear a group that knows how to focus into a sound, make it their own and reproduce it in the studio. With “Life Fantastic,” Man Man has achieved a balance between live energy and serious song writing — an effort that has lacked in
the past.