When you hear the words Men Without Hats, I bet you immediately think of one thing: The Safety Dance. And fair enough. It’s been 40 years since Ivan Doroschuk and his Montreal synth-pop band released the worldwide hit — and in all those years, it’s never vanished from the airwaves. You can’t say the same for Doroschuk, though. While he has continued to tour with various lineups of the band over the years, he only releases a new album every decade or so.
The good news for fans: Doroschuk and Men Without Hats are finally back from their latest period of hibernation. Last year they broke the silence with the covers EP Again Pt. 1. Now they’ve followed it up with Again, Pt. 2, their first full album of original material since 2012. The better news: Their new stuff sounds exactly like their old stuff. Instead of chasing trends, jumping on bandwagons or trying to fix what wasn’t broken, Doroschuk wisely sticks to his musical guns and delivers an album that sounds like it could have been written 30 years ago. In fact, some of it was — Again, Pt. 2 includes both new songs and unreleased fare that Doroschuk pulled out of the archives and re-recorded. The day before the album dropped, Ivan Zoomed in from his B.C. home to talk about his slow pace, Safety Dance’s place in pop culture, how long we have to wait for his next album and more. Enjoy.
