Mean Jeans
On Mars
Dirtnap Records
Buy This Record

Mean Jeans’ sophomore output On Mars doesn’t exactly pick up where their 2009 debut Are You Serious? left off, but the connections aren’t particularly hard to make. There are still plenty of hooks, and childish jokes; pretty much it’s the soundtrack to getting day drunk. The few slow burners that they’ve released thus far have, in hindsight, alluded to the direction of On Mars rather well, as there’s a ton of slowed down tracks here (“School Lunch Victim”, “2 Twisted 2 Luv U”). However that’s not to say there are no fun-soaked tracks running a mile-a-minute here either. The opener “Ready 2 Rip” both catches you up to speed on their antics and changes over the last three years as well as provides an apt starting point for any new comers.

In general On Mars sees Mean Jeans tighter than ever without losing that initial immaturity that drew us all in (just try and count how many “Shamon!”s and references to Jager there are over these 13 songs). It’s hard not to have fun when listening to this record, and they even tacked on an extra 10 minutes when compared to the first record.

As far as lyrical content goes, you’re looking at the usual for Mean Jeans. Being mean/wearing jeans/perpetual parties/exploring space and alien invasions. Not to mention references to The Kinks (my personal favourite). All in all On Mars is a fun long player that is sure to earn the Mean Jeans a healthy dose of tour (re: party) fodder.