''Tomorrow’s Hits'' is the fifth studio album by the

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 ...

punk rock band The Men released March 4, 2014 on

Sacred Bones Records Sacred Bones Records is an American independent record label founded in 2007 and based in Brooklyn, New York. The label has released recordings from artists including Zola Jesus, David Lynch, John Carpenter, Blanck Mass, Crystal Stilts, Marissa ...

.Pelly, Jenn
The Men Announce New Album, Tomorrow's Hits

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

. 3 December 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2014.

Recording

Production

Work on ''Tomorrow's Hits'' first began during the winter of 2012. The album was recorded at Strange Weather studios and was recorded before ''

New Moon In astronomy, the new moon is the first lunar phase, when the Moon and Sun have the same ecliptic longitude. At this phase, the lunar disk is not visible to the naked eye, except when it is silhouetted against the Sun during a solar eclipse. ...

,'' the band's fourth studio album, was released.The Men: Tomorrow's Hits
Sacred Bones Records. Retrieved 6 March 2014. The album's title was a tribute to the titles of

compilation albums A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

that were released during the 1960s.Mrozek, Patryk
The Men’s Nick Chiericozzi Talks Upcoming Album 'Tomorrow’s Hits,' Love Of Short Records, And Following The Creative Spirit (Interview)
prefixmag.com. 11 February 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2014. The term "Tomorrow's Hits" had also previously appeared in the

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

for ''New Moon.'' The

neon sign In the signage industry, neon signs are electric signs lighted by long luminous gas-discharge tubes that contain rarefied neon or other gases. They are the most common use for neon lighting, which was first demonstrated in a modern form in Decem ...

on the album's cover was designed by Rich Samis and Kevin Faulkner.Caffrey, Dan
The Men: Tomorrow’s Heroes
Consequence of Sound. 28 February 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2014.

Music

The album mixes punk rock with

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

influences.Breihan, Tom
Album Of The Week: The Men Tomorrow’s Hits
Stereogum. 4 March 2014. Retrieved 5 March 2014. Artists that have been cited as influences includes

Creedence Clearwater Revival Creedence Clearwater Revival, also referred to as Creedence and CCR, was an American rock band formed in El Cerrito, California. The band initially consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty; his brother, ...

Tom Petty Thomas Earl Petty (October 20, 1950October 2, 2017) was an American musician who was the lead vocalist and guitarist of the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1976. He previously led the band Mudcrutch, was a member of the lat ...

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...

Bob Seger Robert Clark Seger ( ; born May 6, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and The Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s, break ...

and

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

. The album also made heavy use of horns.Ehrlich, Brenna
When It Comes To Making Tomorrow's Hits, The Men Just Add Horns
MTV.com. 4 February 2014. Retrieved 5 March 2014. "Another Night" is a

blue-eyed soul Blue-eyed soul (also called white soul) is rhythm and blues (R&B) and soul music performed by white artists. The term was coined in the mid-1960s, to describe white artists whose sound was similar to that of the predominantly-black Motown and Stax ...

song. "Pearly Gates" is a fast tempo song with

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

influences. Writers have compared the track "Get What You Give" to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

's "

More Than a Feeling "More Than a Feeling" is a song by the American rock band Boston, released as the lead single from the band's 1976 debut album by Epic Records in September 1976, with " Smokin' as the B-side. Tom Scholz wrote the whole song. The single pea ...

Release

The album was first announced on December 3, 2013. The first single from the album, "Pearly Gates," was released January 8, 2014.Martins, Chris
Hear the Men's Gloriously Hi-Fi 'Pearly Gates'
Spin.com. 8 January 2014. Retrieved 23 January 2014. A second single from the album, "Another Night," was released on February 3, 2014.Gentile, John
The Men Reinvent Yet Again for 'Another Night' - Song Premiere
Rolling Stone. 3 February 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2014. A third single from the album, "Different Days," was released the next day.Breihan, Tom
The Men – “Different Days”
Stereogum.com. 4 February 2014. Retrieved 5 March 2014. ''Tomorrow's Hits'' was streamed in its entirety on February 25, 2014.Bowe, Mike
Stream The Men Tomorrow’s Hits
Stereogum.com. 25 February 2014. Retrieved 5 March 2014. On March 5, 2014, a music video for "Pearly Gates" was released. The video, directed by Brian Chillemi, was influenced by

road movie A road movie is a film genre in which the main characters leave home on a road trip, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives. Road movies often depict travel in the hinterlands, with the films exploring the theme of alienatio ...

s and features bikers, a police chase and a sacrificial cult.Beauchemin, Molly
Video: The Men: "Pearly Gates"

. 5 March 2014. Retrieved 5 March 2014.Reilly, Dan
Watch the Men Head to the 'Pearly Gates' With Bikers and Satanists
Spin.com. 5 March 2014. Retrieved 5 March 2014.

Reception

''Tomorrow's Hits'' has received generally positive reviews. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the album has a score of 73 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews."Critic Reviews for Tomorrow's Hits

. Retrieved 4 March 2014. Michael Madden of

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...

gave the album a grade of A, writing "''Tomorrow’s Hits'' doesn’t boom like The Men’s early material (namely, 2010’s ''Immaculada'' and 2011’s ''Leave Home''), but it’s more rousing instrumentally than last year’s ''New Moon.''" Madden continued: "Let’s face it: The Men have all the tools required to spur obsessive listeners." Paste's Ryan Prado also gave the album a positive review, writing "''Tomorrow’s Hits,'' is almost unfairly possessive of a foretelling title, seeing as how vanilla some of the songs can come off sounding. The record, however, is an accurate chronology of a working band’s prolific devotion to feeding the muse." In another positive review,

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

's Jon Young wrote, "Given the stylistic zig-zagging, the Men can't claim a master plan, apart from keeping themselves entertained, which should suffice. For them, and for us." Jazz Monroe gave the album a grade of 8 out of 10, writing, "The real genius of ''Tomorrow’s Hits'' is its shaking off not just fan expectations but the almighty shackles of credibility, innovation and, for want of a subtler term, corporate buzz-band etiquette." Matthew Fiander of

Popmatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

gave the album a mixed review, writing "There’s still a solid core to ''Tomorrow’s Hits,'' one that cleans up the band’s talents and puts them on display in innovative songs. Unfortunately, for every look forward on ''Tomorrow’s Hits,'' there’s another one still stuck in the past."

Tiny Mix Tapes ''Tiny Mix Tapes'' (also ''TMT'' or ''tinymixtapes'') is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, a ...

also gave the album a mixed review, writing that the album "

omes The branches of science known informally as omics are various disciplines in biology whose names end in the suffix ''-omics'', such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics, phenomics and transcriptomics. Omics aims at the collective ...

across as methodic in whichever mirror you choose to view it in." The review continued: "It’s their 'highest fidelity album yet,' but it actually being

medium rare Doneness is a gauge of how thoroughly cooked a cut of meat is based on its color, juiciness, and internal temperature. The gradations are most often used in reference to beef (especially steaks and roasts) but are also applicable to other typ ...

-fi in the grand relative scheme of the music fidelity scale seems boring."The Men - Tomorrow's Hits
Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved 6 March 2014. At ''

Alternative Press Alternative press may refer to: Individual publications * ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine Alternative journalism * Alternative media ** Alternative media (U.S. political left) ** Alternative media (U.S. political ri ...

'', Robert Ham rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of five, saying that "The majority of the tracks on ''Tomorrow's Hits'' feel like they were cooked in the backyards of Laurel Canyon with ambling rhythms, the lilt of lap steel guitar and an air of stoned desperation lingering over it all like smog."

Track listing

#"Dark Waltz" - 5:13 #"Get What You Give" - 3:20 #"Another Night" - 5:28 #"Different Days" - 4:31 #"Sleepless" - 3:11 #"Pearly Gates" - 6:16 #"Settle Me Down" - 4:58 #"Going Down" - 3:41

References

External links

Sacred Bones Records' page on ''Tomorrow's Hits''
{{Authority control 2014 albums The Men (punk band) albums Sacred Bones Records albums