Insecure Men
Insecure Men

This story is quite curious: essentially, Saul Adamczewski's story with Fat White Family came to an end one night in 2015 in Paris, while the terrorist atrocities of the Bataclan events were taking place a few kilometers away. The truth is that at that point, Saul simply realized he had hit rock bottom concerning his use of crack and heroin: he went into rehab, came out after four months, and with his old friend Ben Romans-Hopcraft (Childhood), decided to put together a new musical project, the Insecure Men, based on a musical and conceptual perspective radically opposed to the radical and typically punk premise of the Fat White Family.

The two began working together on the new project at The Queens Head pub, Stockwell, a historical "gym" for both the Fat White Family and Shame; the work was then completed in the state of New York (USA) at Sean Lennon's studios, where Saul had previously worked on the recording of "Songs For Our Mothers," mainly based on tapes recorded by himself during the last period of being in the band (however, many of the lyrics were written by Lias Kaci Saoudi of the Fat White Family). Thus, this first album of the duo came out on Fat Possum Records, sounding unexpected and fundamentally based on classic UK-made psychedelia with west coast influences ("The Saddest Man In Penge"), synthetic pop vibes ("Teenage Toy," "I Don't Wanna Dance (With My Baby)") mixed with interesting brass arrangements and certain exotic oriental atmospheres ("Subaru Nights...") or calypso ("Heatrow").

The result is a definitely peculiar album that brings together vintage sounds typical of a psychedelic pop revival in the style of Jacco Gardner or Temples with a certain synthetic romantic fatalism from the eighties and inflections from classic songwriting (almost crooner) and cinematic visions, plus a certain circular "playfulness" in the arrangements and use of "Neo Geo" choirs. Nevertheless, the content is probably not exceptional or particularly original, where a certain "grated" and garage attitude remains, which if I were Saul, I would not disavow and would actually make it a unique feature. Seeing them live could be interesting: there is talk of a nice formation composed of 11 elements, including some members or ex-members of the Fat White Family circle, not to mention a mysterious South London music teacher who goes by the name "Steely Dan" on the vibraphone and drums.