Music For Men

Performer: Gossip
Engineer: Dana Nielsen; Greg Fidelman
Producer: Rick Rubin
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Personnel: Beth Ditto (vocals); Brace Paine (guitar, keyboards); Dana Nielsen (saxophone); Hannah Billie (drums, percussion); Hannah (drums); Greg Fidelman, Lenny Castro (percussion). Audio Mixers: Greg Fidelman; Andrew Scheps. Editors: Dana Nielsen; Jason Gossman. Illustrator: Hannah Billie. Photographer: Lee Broomfield. The Gossip close MUSIC FOR MEN with a song called "Spare Me from the Mold," but Beth Ditto, Nathan Paine, and Hannah Billie could never be accused of conforming. They were still a relatively underground group when STANDING IN THE WAY OF CONTROL's passionate mix of punk, soul, and disco became their breakthrough - and they sounded so confident on it, it felt like the mainstream was coming to them rather than vice versa. They've got their own piece of the pop (and pop culture) mainstream now, and MUSIC FOR MEN feels aboveground in the best possible way. Befitting its major-label debut, this is the band's most polished music yet, a balance of CONTROL's ferocity and the sleek remixes of the album's singles, but it's still not slick. Most of MUSIC FOR MEN finds the Gossip sticking to their roots and using their success to get their messages out to as many people as possible. These songs are just as empowering as their earlier work, though they're more subtly defiant. "Dimestore Diamond" opens the album with a tough-strutting anthem about a woman who's faking it till she makes it, and it's clear how much the band identifies with her, even though Ditto became an avant-garde fashion plate in the wake of CONTROL's success. "Men in Love" sets lyrics like "we're guilty of love in the first degree" to a liberated beat and jagged guitars, and "Love and Let Love"'s chilly disco acts as armor for Ditto's heartbreak. While the Gossip still play like a band, the production often favors Ditto's voice - not that this is a bad thing: she brings soulful fury to "8th Wonder" and much more tartness to the excellent "Love Long Distance" than a more conventional diva might (the clever chorus "I heard it through the bassline/Not much longer would you be my baby" doesn't hurt, either). However, the band still tears into "Heavy Cross" - which sounds a lot like a slightly glossier STANDING IN THE WAY OF CONTROL track - like the old days. This urgency drives all of these songs, whether it's the bright '80s pop of "For Keeps" or "2012"'s unlikely but captivating mix of Pat Benatar-channeling vocals and end-of-the-world drama. While it isn't quite as honed as STANDING IN THE WAY OF CONTROL, on MUSIC FOR MEN the Gossip sound perfectly at home in their new digs, while remaining true to their essence.

Rolling Stone (p.67) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[H]ere, with help from Rick Rubin, they remake themselves as a badass dance machine." Spin (p.82) - "12 Rick Rubin-produced tracks spanning minimalist disco, post-punk, and garage....A tightly wound disco-punk conjugation." Billboard (p.32) - "The dark single 'Heavy Cross' features ragged guitars accompanied by Ditto's sharp velvety voice..." Q (Magazine) (p.130) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Ditto's one-of-a-kind voice still bestrides everything, sometimes strangled and punky, sometimes gutsy and soulful, sometimes oddly sweet."

The tail-end of the 1990s spawned a legion of stripped-down, bass-free indie outfits, with Detroit's White Stripes and the Olympia-based indie trio, the Gossip, at the fore. Inevitably compared to the Detroit duo, in truth, the Gossip displayed greater affinity with the politicized 'riot grrl' movement of the early '90s. Their 2000 debut full-length, THAT'S NOT WHAT I HEARD, twinned raging indie-rock with pro-gay lyrical content and made an underground star of vocalist Beth Ditto. STANDING IN THE WAY OF CONTROL--their third full-length--released in 2006, added some disco heat to the band's punk-soul mix.

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