Former Swans member and goth rock icon Jarboe's newest album-- her first in five years-- is named for the guests who provide its thematic backbone. The Men Album is a 20-track 2xCD that gathers artists from across the musical landscape to perform alongside Jarboe's haunting, ethereal vocals. Yet while contributions from Low's Alan Sparhawk, Neurosis' Steve Von Till, and industrial and goth legends such as Chris Connelly, David J, and Blixa Bargeld offer exciting moments, too many indistinguishable songs combined with the sheer size of the collection smother its handful of strong numbers.
These songs were recorded over the course of several years, which may have made the editing process more difficult, which is frustrating since sprinkled throughout the two discs are a handful of seemingly pointless tracks. "Into Feral" and "Feral Blixa", for example, consist almost entirely of bestial squeals and screeches from Blixa Bargeld. Further on we get "Jarboe Feral (Durga)", which layers a capella moans from Jarboe herself. Her voice is intriguing, sure, but this sounds like someone accidently leaned on the record button while she was warming up. Elsewhere we get a track that relies on an answering machine message, and another that's nothing more than a detailed description of food.
The album's primary problem, however, is that too many of these songs lack anything to distinguish them from one another. Aside from the bits of randomness described above, almost all of them can be described with three blanket descriptions: slow, dark ballads, guitar driven goth rock songs, or dance mixes. Within those descriptions, however, there's little deviation from the formula. Jarboe even manages to take an 80s power ballad, "Reason to Live" from Kiss's 1987 album Crazy Nights, and turn it into a bland, generic goth tune.
Having said all of that there are definitely a handful of strong, interesting songs here. In "Found", Jarboe's crooning pans from speaker to speaker while monk-like chanting vocals from Alan Sparhawk fill out the background. The combination of her lilting, elegant voice and his steady drone works perfectly. Contributions from members of Neurosis, A Perfect Circle, and Faith & the Muse turn "Feral" into a trudging, gloomy combination of industrial and metal. Toward the end of the second disc are a handful of standout tracks, including "Angel Jim", which features Jim Thirwell, and "Subtraction", where Chris Connelly's warbling vocals are the perfect counterbalance to Jarboe's. However, four or five successes in a score of songs just isn't enough, meaning The Men Album is for die-hards only.
