''Labor'' is the second and final album from

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

electropop band

MEN A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chro ...

. It was self-released on October 22, 2013, with full album streaming made available on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

as well as the New York Times interactive website. The album takes a subtler, more introspective approach than the band's overtly activist 2011 debut full-length,

Talk About Body ''Talk About Body'' is the debut album from Brooklyn electropop band MEN. It was released on February 1, 2011 on IAMSOUND Records in the US, and Sony/Columbia in Europe. It received a favorable average score of 64 on ''Metacritic. The song lyric ...

, although the single "Let Them Out Or Let Me In" supporting the Free Pussy Riot movement is included. After a shuffling of the band’s lineup since their debut,

Samson Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...

has said she focused more on elements of transition and change for this self-released second album. By turning inward, Labor gives JD Samson & MEN greater accessibility. The reality that activist music can only go so far, this album serves to avoid restrictive genre terminology assigned to the band such as “

LGBT music Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) music is music that focuses on the experiences of gender and sexual minorities as a product of the broad gay liberation movement. LGBT music spans the entire spectrum of popular music. Lyricism ...

”. In addition to the activist single "Let Them Out Or Let Me In", the album also contains previously released songs: all three tracks from ''Next EP'', released in February 2012. The band teamed up with French producer Yuksek on the single "All The Way Thru".

Track listing

Reception

While not getting the same media coverage as the 2011 album

, ''Labor'' received consistently favorable reviews.

Quotes

Album Review
Spectrum Culture - "At first blush, it’s easy to miss MEN’s largely feminist and LGBT politics because, now on their second LP, they’ve become purveyors of throbbing and glistening club-ready electropop that’ll get your body moving before your mind can wrap around the message. It’s only upon repeat listens that the depth of Samson’s songwriting surfaces, making MEN all the more dynamic."

Videos

''All The Way Thru'' - August 15, 2013
''Making Art'' - November 5, 2013, director: Laura Vitale
''Club Thang'' - November 12, 2013, director: Jack Barraclough

References

{{Authority control 2013 albums MEN (band) albums