'Open' your ears to the Men

There’s a somewhat derogatory term for what Brooklyn’s the Men engage in on their masterful third LP, “Open Your Heart”: “record collection rock.”

The faux-genre tag suggests a dedication to one’s own influences so passionate that actually forging a distinctive sound falls by the wayside.

Indeed, “Open Your Heart” plays like a pastiche of everything from Floor to the Replacements to Foo Fighters to Earth, with specific tracks and riffs serving as signposts on a painstakingly assembled map of the Men’s collective tastes.

Where so many other record collection rock albums fail, though, this one succeeds. Nothing feels like plagiarism; everything feels like homage.

The Men take two-plus decades of post-hardcore, noise rock and punk clichés and transform them into something that belongs only to them.

The band’s earlier material also leaned on its influences while building around them, but what sets “Open Your Heart” apart is the emotional vulnerability evident right there in its title.

Last year’s “Leave Home” was excellent, but it played things much closer to the phlegm-filled chest, with its most memorable lyric being a disgusting cough by then-guitarist Chris Hansell.

“Open Your Heart,” meanwhile, is full of earnest, heartfelt poetry, manifesting itself mostly in mature self-acceptance, both personal (“There are no mirrors here / I am who I am / And I’m here for you to see”) and professional (“When I hear the radio play / I don’t care that it’s not me”).

The lyrics are delivered mostly by a gruff Mark Perro, who is at turns precise and rambling, as though the album’s songs were recorded at varying stages of sobriety.

This is fitting, as it has moments equally suited for a raucous night out as a bleary, whiskey-aided breakup.

This feels wholly intentional. The Men don’t want emotional resonance to come at the cost of a good time, so they write songs that work for both.

It’s hardly a coincidence that the result is the deepest — and arguably best — record of the year so far.