Reviewed by Chris Roberts/Rob Slater Released: March 20 1982 Men Without Hats Rhythm Of Youth Chris' Genre: Anti-Hat, Dancing Rights Imbecile Anthems Rob's Genre: Devo’d Bowie Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5 Chris’ Rating: 3 out of 5 Rob's Rating: 4.25 out of 5 Chris' Highlights: The Great Ones Remember I Got The Message The Safety Dance (original version) I Like Rob's Highlihgts: Ban The Game Living In China The Great Ones Remember I Got The Message The Safety Dance Things In My Life The Great Ones Remember - Reprise [Allen's Note: This has never happened before. I inadvertently assigned a record twice. I really don't know how that happened. But, for you reading pleasure, here are two Listening Poster's takes on Men Without Hats.] Chris Robert's Review: Rhythm of Youth improved over a few listens, but I don’t recommend the album as it appears on the streamers, the CD or 90% of the vinyl versions. The best way to hear this album is the original release, before it was retooled to take advantage of Men Without Hats monster hit, “The Safety Dance.” I won’t say any version of Rhythm of Youth is particularly great. But the original version of Rhythm of Youth at least had a plan. The original song sequence clarifies certain musical themes: the snippet of tinkling piano from “Ban The Game” ties into “Cocoricci (Le Tango Des Voleurs”) at the end of Side A; and brings out the highlights (“The Great Ones Remember,” “I Like,” and “I Got The Message”) that get lost and overwhelmed by the smash dancefloor-awareness hit. These songs taste a little like Depeche Mode’s Speak & Spell bubblegum, or a Telex missive— enough for a couple spins. (The retooled version includes two versions of TSD. The first SD you’ll encounter begins with an unnecessary “unplugged” vocal prelude, and makes the album drag after less than a minute.) On many songs, Ivan Doroschuk’s baritone and lyrics suggest the Hats strived for greater importance—I find them hard to take seriously. Considering that “The Safety Dance” is just a negative Yelp review for the local discotheque: “They were so rude and stupid! They wouldn’t let us Hats flail around like well-dressed, new wave aliens! We would give them ZERO stars if we could!” Meanwhile, they refused to dress appropriately for the Canadian winters. “Wake up sheeple!” they’d say. “A real man doesn’t wear a hat!” In the end, the Hats themselves are just a footnote to “The Safety Dance,” which bafflingly grows in stature over the years. Not only is “The Safety Dance” the new battle cry of the vax nation (Alaska Airlines ad: “if your friends don’t mask, and IF they don’t mask, well they can’t fly this airline”) but no less than indie pop darling Angel Olsen has included her “serious” version of “The Safety Dance” on her latest EP. I prefer the dancefloor grievances of the original SD, but now that this review is over, I’m probably done with any version of this song for a couple decades. *********************** Rob Slater's Review: I was very surprised how much I liked this album. The songs I like best are catchy and not quite as much synthesizer focused: "Ban the Game." I love this intro song, sort of cinematic. Then the gigantic hit, "The Safety Dance." Who does not get this stuck in their head. I think I may have “hated” it when it came out. I was a snob for anything but my musical tastes, which were pretty eclectic. Then "Living in China" sounds like a David Bowie tune. What year did "China Girl" come out?" "The Great Ones Remember" is a Great One, but I've noticed, specifically with this song, that once he starts singing, I immediately like it a lot better. If the intros were only about 10 to 15 seconds it would be fine. This intro was 35 seconds. For some reason I like the intro for "I Got the Message" better. This may be my third favorite song. Kind of Devo with more music and less monotony. It is repetitive, but for some reason I don't mind it as much and I stopped consciously listening about halfway through. Then the French lyrics started and it was more interesting. Yet “Cocoricci” is really meh for me, despite the French.. I really love, "Things in My Life," that again sounds like Bowie. The rest are all meh, until the reprise of "The Great Ones Remember." It’s as great as the actual song. Nice closer.
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