If you search for the band name Insecure Men on common streaming platforms, you have to spend an eternity scrolling down mental health podcasts. In the long run, these podcasts then think about whether it is still okay to date men or why “female life energy is blocked” until you finally comes across the band you are looking for.
Therefore: It might be more beneficial to listen to fewer podcasts and go on more musical journeys of discovery. Strictly speaking, Insecure Men are not newcomers. Because behind it is, on the one hand, the British musician Saul Adamczewski, as a member of the band Fat White Family had already successfully agitated minds and provoked the media in the 1900s and provided anarchic musical refreshment in the now rather monotonous pop business on the island.
Ben Romans-Hopcraft, Insecure Men’s other songwriter, previously made dreamily smooth indie rock with the band Childhood – it sounded more solid than daring. The duo founded Insecure Men together in 2015 with other musicians and now combines the good ugliness of one band with the bad beauty of the other band. It is said that artists need an accident in order to be able to fully develop creatively. It could be.
Difficult phase
The album “A Man For All Seasons” is based primarily on Adamczewski’s song creations from a creative phase that was characterized by mental conflicts, melancholy and malaise. “Love Again” begins pessimistically: “The Horizon, is not always a new beginning/ The talk runs thin, so you walk again/ Blessed by the wind,” but the bossa nova exotica impression the music sounds hopeful.
„A Man For All Seasons“ (Fat Possum/Indigo)
The different musical levels in the Insecure Men’s songs are ostensibly optimistic, even the saxophone finds its own unique timbre. While you react enthusiastically when you first listen, the second listening impression becomes more irritating: “Cleaning Bricks” seems happy, friendly and simple, while “Krab” could also fit on a soft porn soundtrack and “Graveyard (Of Our Love)” submits to the rules of a ballad in an almost cheesy, banal way.
Each piece sounds different and yet coherence arises from Adamczewski’s ability to relinquish control: bandmates – alongside Romans-Hopcraft – Marley Mackay, Victor Jakeman, Alex White and Steely Dan Monte then take over and each add their own style, which is why the music initially seems uncoordinated when brass arrangements meet synthesizer and vibraphone.
However, the recovery process does not always go according to plan. Likewise, “A Man for all Seasons” doesn’t sound compelling as an album. It’s more of a mosaic of different moods – and that’s why Insecure Men’s music seems uncomplicated and free.
Deserves a lot of attention
Adamczewski has freed himself from old demons and developed into a formidable composer who writes lyrics that are as deeply sad and full of integrity as “Drink me slowly/ Drink me gladly/ Drink a hole inside my head,” or “You want it darker/ I want it blind/ I want to peel off the back of your eyes.” It is not easy food and therefore deserves detailed discussion and a lot of attention.
Dealing openly with his past is not a concern for mastermind Adamczewski, which he stages with an artificially created broken artist’s soul; It’s not like he’s drowning in self-pity, circling around himself, he’s just expressing an apology to those around him: “Would you love me/ Would you tell me/ That you loved me when I do all those terrible things/ Those unforgivable things/ I guess you won’t/ Neither would I/ So goodbye”.
Adamczewski himself writes: “It sounds totally cheesy, but it’s about finding the truth, an inner truth or a meaning. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do right now. Life is hard and I haven’t made it easy for myself, especially not for my friends. But music can heal and help get through all of this.” When it booms as menacingly and blossoms in a disturbing manner as in the song “Butter,” the healing process is well on its way.