Insecure Men is a desperate shot at wholesomeness. Songs collected by Fat White Family guitarist Saul Ademczewski have become a side project to fortify his rehabilitation from long-standing addiction.
Snapping out of his downward spiral, Saul was clean, with nothing to his name but a collection of songs. If Fat White Family is a celebration of the ugliness of life, then Insecure Men is a desperate shot at wholesomeness. Exotic and cheesy cruise ship rhythms, fruity synth patches and ‘50s pop choruses are a good attempt at purity, but darkness always lurks.
‘Teenage Toy’ has a timeless pop sensibility but is also dark in its sombre and bored lyrical delivery. ‘Saddest Man in Penge’ develops this undercurrent. The lyrics written by Lias Saoudi (Fat White Family frontman) were perhaps a good-natured payback for the grief Saul created when they all worked on Fat White Family’s Songs For Our Mothers.
‘Whitney Houston and I’ is another moving account of never being able to live outside your parent’s shadow, even in death. It features pop singers the Honey Hahs in a chilling insert to this synth-laden pathos. It’s outstanding in its balance of the happy and the sad, the grim and the euphoric and will appeal to those who appreciate irony.
9/10
