“Plan of the Man”
from the album Future Women
2006
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The M’s aren’t a UK rock band, but they do a ripping imitation of one on the title track of their debut album, Future Women, which sounds like an early-’70s Paul McCartney tune upgraded for the post-Strokes era. The Chicago quartet is equally adept at modernist sheen and retro muscle, and they seem almost at odds with themselves on Future Women, swinging from the all-in indie-pop noisemaking of “Underground” to the razor-sharp electric blues of “Mansion in the Valley,” as though unsure whether they want to join the Arcade Fire army or fly with Jet. The M’s do best when they navigate the straits between art and commerce, as on “My Gun,” where they shred and burn the blueprints for the big rock anthem while retaining an institutional memory of its hooky boom. Ultimately, Future Women‘s fractured personality gives the album drama.