Dirtnap (2018)
One of the bands I miss more than any other is The Marked Men. Yes, the Radioactivity records are great and give me my biennial dose of Jeff Burke songwriting, but there was a certain magic that The Marked Men had that puts them apart from all of their members various other projects. Since it seems unlikely that The Marked Men will ever make a new album, it is nice that they've finally released a singles compilation.
One thing that I particularly enjoy about this release is that it's actually a complete compilation. So many bands put out these sorts of things and then leave songs off of them, a decision that I will just never understand. But The Marked Men do it right and every single song from every single 7" is represented along with a couple of previously unreleased songs. Even though I had all of the prior singles, I was still pretty excited to have them compiled onto one easy to listen to LP. As much as I adore the 7" format, I just don't listen to them as much as I listen to LPs. This album gives me the chance to give these songs the attention that they've deserved all along.
On The Other Side is almost as strong as any of The Marked Men's full lengths. There is very little in the way of filler and some of these songs like "She Won't Know," "Oh My Pretty Face," and "The Other Side" are just flat out incredible.
Even though I tend not to go as variant crazy as I once did, it was important to me to keep my Marked Men collection complete. I bought both limited version on teal vinyl (/300) and white vinyl (/300) plus the standard black. While I still wish that we will hear from The Marked Men again, On The Other Side is a pretty incredible finale to one of my favorite bands of the past fifteen years.
The Marked Men - On The Other Side:
https://dirtnaprecords.bandcamp.com/album/marked-men-on-the-other-side
Their cover of "Oh My Pretty Face" by Sweet JAP is real good!
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