The Gossip's leap to a major label, and the ensuing album, Music for Men, hasn't quite taken over the world the way that former Columbia head Rick Rubin predicted for the band when he signed them. They're essentially the same band they were on Kill Rock Stars, but with better sounding synths, more mainstream sounding songs, and a bigger marketing team. It's unlikely Kill Rock Stars could have funded this expensive video for "Pop Goes the World," so in that respect, the move to COlumbia has upped their video quality. That spiked animation thing and color blending was probably not cheap. The real difference here though is sonically; The Gossip used to do disco pastiche that had a palpable dangerous edge to it, like at any moment the whole thing would crash into a fiery blaze. Now their edges are gone, and all that's left is a monolithic sheen.
Music for Men is out now.
