Thank heavens for Beth Ditto. In a world of manufactured, auto-tuned pop stars and wispy-voiced indie-chanteuse pinups it's nice to see an honest-to-god female rock star who is provocative, strong, and sexy with the muscular vocal chops to match. Since the release of 2005's Standing in the Way of Control, Ditto has become a superstar in the UK, hobnobbing with Karl Lagerfeld and Kate Moss and proudly splashing her naked body across the covers of British magazines. But at home in America, the Oregon-by-way-of-Arkansas singer is still a niche artist. That is supposed to change with Music For Men, her band's first studio album for Columbia. It represents Gossip's major-label coming out party, an achievement shepherded by bearded superproducer Rick Rubin.
The result is a good Gossip album, one that could soundtrack sweaty summer dance parties, but it also isn't drastically different from their last one. They may now have major-label money and famous friends, but their bluesy-voiced dance-punk remains unchanged-- a fact that is especially surprising given the waning popularity of that genre over the last four years. Ditto may be the "personality" of the band, its loud-mouthed, outrageously attired public face, but the power of its sound is anchored by Hannah Blilie's thundering, precise drumming and Brace Paine's choppy, Chic riffs. And on Music For Men these "sidemen" are in rare form with drums so taut they sound almost mechanical and pulsing, staccato basslines that call to mind Stevie Nicks' "Edge of Seventeen" (as on "Heavy Cross") and the "Knight Rider" theme song (as on "Vertical Rhythm"). But fret not, Ditto-worshippers; the arrangements are meticulous but spare, leaving plenty of sonic space for her vocal pyrotechnics. In fact, it is her florid, soulful voice that gives these crisply percussive tracks their melodic kick.
With a lean three-person lineup and a crack rhythm section, Gossip have never really been driven by their melodies. They built their reputation on unforgiving rhythmic relentlessness and Ditto's raw, limber warble instead of on singalong anthems or hooky choruses. But there are moments on Music For Men that represent some of the most memorably melodic of their career. In many cases, that's because Ditto has interpolated snippets of classic hits into her throttling garage-disco tunes. "Love Long Distance", for instance, quotes "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"'s "not much longer would you be my baby" line, and "Men in Love", this album's answer to the last record's gay-rights anthem of a title track, features a "Chain of Fools"-like "shame, shame, shame" refrain. It makes sense that Ditto would be influenced by such soul classics, given the vintage bent of her wail, but the band also pays homage to their disco and hard-rock influences on "2012", a standout track that flips Kiss' "I Was Made For Lovin' You" into a handclap-studded disco-punk anthem that instead announces, "My heart may never beat again, baby/ Have you got the best of me?"
Though longtime fans of the band may worry that they have left their DIY-punk-scene roots behind for Paris Fashion Week and pictures on Perez Hilton, Music For Men should assuage their fears-- not because it's not a glamorous or glitzy collection (it is), but because it sounds so much like its predecessor. Being caught between the mainstream and the underground may have changed the band's visibility, but it hasn't changed their music much. That is both a relief and little bit of a disappointment. As a musical statement of intent to the throngs of the newly interested, Music For Men shows a clear picture of who Gossip want to be-- a New Millennial Madonna for whom Danceteria never closes. But for those who have been following Gossip's career, waiting with bated breath to see how the band will evolve, this new record may feel a little too much like they are still Standing in the Way of Control.
