Man Man - Life Fantastic

01. Knuckle Down
02. Piranhas Club
03. Steak Knives
04. Dark Arts
05. Haute Tropique
06. Shameless
07. Spooky Jookie
08. Eel Bros
09. Bangkok Necktie
10. Life Fantastic
11. Oh, La Brea

As frontman Honus Honus explains. “Contextually, this is an album fueled by the end of relationships, the death of good friends, an absence of structure, drifting from place to place without a real home. It's funny because in the past I was able to take bad situations and turn them into something creative but this time around I just couldn't at all. I felt nothing, which was worse than being miserable and depressed. Sometimes I guess you have to stumble around in a fog for awhile until you find a way out, rediscover your heart, take comfort in knowing that the only thing you really have control over is how you choose to roll with the punches. In many ways, this is an album about carrying on."

Life Fantastic is the first Man Man album with a proper producer behind the boards. And not just any knob-twiddler, either. We’re talking Mike Mogis, the Bright Eyes member responsible for the widescreen backdrops of nearly every major Saddle Creek release. The record also features lush string arrangements by fellow Bright Eyes member Nate Walcott.

“The songs were fully-formed entities by the time we got to Mike’s studio,” says Kattner, “But he was there to say things like, ‘Okay, that’s a bit (too) much.’ He was able to help us carve the beauty out of the chaos we brought. It wasn’t whittling down the points; it was sharpening them so they’d puncture even deeper.”