From the May 6 – May 12, 1999 issue

Men Without Hats

Rhythm of Youth

by Sean Nelson

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Excellent

DEXYS MIDNIGHT RUNNERS: Don't Stand Me Down by Everett True
THE BUZZCOCKS: Love Bites by Philip Guichard
THE MISFITS: Legacy of Brutality by Dan Paulus
KYUSS: Untitled by Adam Heimlich
YOKO ONO: Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band by Gillian G. Gaar
RUN-D.M.C.: Run-D.M.C. by Adam Heimlich
PAUL MCCARTNEY: McCartney II by Sean Nelson
THE OUTLAWS: Wanted by Hank Trotter
RUSH: 2112 by Andy Spletzer
JOHN COLTRANE: Interstellar Space by Nathan Thornburgh
THE EMOTIONS: Rejoice by Riz Rollins
Men Without Hats: Rhythm of Youth by Sean Nelson
RANDY NEWMAN: Good Old Boys by Sean Nelson
ARETHA FRANKLIN: SPARKLE by Riz Rollins
THE DOLLY MIXTURE: Demonstration Tapes by Lois Maffeo
WEEN: The Pod by Adam Heimlich
TRACEY THORN: A Distant Shore by Lois Maffeo
SMIF-N-WESSUN: Dah Shinin' by Adam Heimlich
QUEEN: A Night at the Opera by Dan Paulus
TALK TALK: Laughing Stock by Riz Rollins

I can't honestly figure out why I like--nay, love--this album. I'm not always such a sucker for synth pop made in the '80s by long-haired Canadians with a penchant for obscurant, potentially really offensive political musings ("Living in China"), Dada-lite imagery ("Ideas for Walls"), heroic anomie ("Antarctica") and totally inscrutable dance crazes ("Safety Dance"). Two things I do know, and they may be completely irrelevant: (1) whenever I start listening to a lot of Magnetic Fields, I inevitably reach for this record, too, and (2) if Gang of Four had been a Canadian synth-pop-dance band, they might have been Men Without Hats... before "Pop Goes the World" anyway.