Gossip — Music For Men

Music For Men

Columbia/Sony

Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

06/25/2009 3:04pm

Gossip return with their third album, the Rick Rubin-produced Music For Men. It furthers the sounds found on the band's previous albums, which is a melding of post-punk, disco and funk.

One could easily roll their eyes here and dismiss Music For Men with the argument that this formula is getting stale now, given all the Franz Ferdinand and Interpol copycat bands. It's a fair argument, but Gossip offer something a little different from their peers.

Beth Ditto's voice is a part of that, and that's why Gossip sound more like they'd be at home in a disco in 1970s New York than on stage at CBGB or another Bowery Club. But don't let Music For Men's slick production confuse you because there's still something very gritty about it, as can be seen in Ditto's lyrics, which promote gay rights and progressive causes.

Music For Men is full of solid tunes from opener "Dimestore Diamond," the catchy first single, "Heavy Cross" and "2012," but it would be easy to dismiss it without Ditto's presence, since it would come across as just another cookie-cutter neo post-punk record.

Unfortunately, most of the songs also sound exactly like the title track from 2006's Standing In The Way Of Control, which got Gossip a larger audience and is one of the reasons they signed to a major label. Hopefully, Gossip can work on finding their niche and try not to endlessly replicate the same song on their next release.