Search - Menswear :: Nuisance

The Sound of 1995

kendall lopere | H-Town, Tx, USA | 09/04/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If there was ever a moment where the sound of "Britpop" was distilled, crystallized and preserved forever on plastic, this is it. The album sounds like Camden, London, 1995, boys in Adidas tracksuit tops, Adidas trainers (sneakers) and bootcut jeans shaking their rakishly bisexual fringes in a pub while drinking cheap beer. Thankfully it also sounds damn good. A lot of Britpop has aged badly, the joke has worn off and it really all isn't as funny (or ironic) as it once seemed. Now that the dust is settled however we can look back and hear what a great band Menswe@r really were. Horrendously overhyped (by themselves as much as others) before they'd even commited a note of music to tape these boys were everywhere in 1995-1996 and disappeared just as quickly when the Britpop bubble burst in 1997 - the press turned against them, the fans pretended they'd never liked them, and a nation of kids dressed in black and declared they'd always been into the early Verve stuff (hint - early Verve is only good if you're very very high, see also Spaceman 3, Happy Mondays, Spice Girls etc.).
"Nuisance" (a self-deprecating title if ever there was one...) is a great and varied album. It mostly bounces along on the poppy guitars and excitable lyrics that can only come from having an average age under 22. Led by the fey, lithe, androgenous and handsome Johnny Dean, the boys examined such topics as bumming around New York, bumping into your ex girlfriends and being famous in 4/4 time with big choruses, cheery harmonies and classic lyrics (""Tess", he said "I don't understand how they grow tomatoes in a can...""). However, inbetween all the pop-rock lay some ballads that displayed a more serene side to the band, and a musical and lyrical maturity that was unexpected based on their public image, and largely over-looked by a music press intent only on building artists up to knock them down. "Being Brave" and "Piece of Me" are soul-searching gems that wouldn't be out of place on a Bright Eyes or Dashboard Confessional album, and the hidden bonus track "Nuisance" adds a further depth and musical expansion by being both guitarless and in 3/4 time.
Shamelessly borrowing from the Beatles, Kinks and Stones and yet creating a sound and an image that was unmistakably their own Menswe@r ruled 1995. With poppy guitar-rock now back in fashion and called "Emo", you owe it to yourself and your musical education to check out this album. Anything else just wouldn't be cricket eh?"

Where have you guys gone???

B-Rad | G-Town, TX United States | 12/15/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an excellent album! It never left my CD player back in the mid '90's! Please come back and make another quality record like this one. Great bands are very hard to come by these days."

NUISANCE - landmark britpop album

MEWZIK | 02/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This band was beaten by the UK press, the same people who built them up mind you, but as britpop was making a more serious turn there needed to be a whipping boy - why not Johnny Dean and the lads from Menswe@r. Afterall, they were entertaining and talented, and at best releasing one album defining a genre of music that was losing a general direction. They released two follow-up singles "We Love You" - then a limited print of a second full length called Hey Tiempo (the demo is called Goldstar). From this point, Menswe@r broke up. They not only broke up, they vanished (no solo recordings or new bands). Again thanks to the fickle praise of the British press, this was the rise and fall of a great band who demanded in their contract Italian-made custom-designed suits.



With its cheeky and flamboyant lyrics and powerpop/beatle-like melodies, Nuisance ranks high on my Britpop history page.



If you want another album's worth of Nuisance, make sure you pick up the singles with their b-sides. They are just as good, if not better than the album at times."