The Adventures of Women and Men Without Hate in the 21st Century

Updated on Jan 13, 2024

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Length 51:17 The Adventures of Women & Men Without Hate in the 21st Century (1989) Sideways (1991) Release date October 1989 Genre Electropop		Label Mercury Artist Men Without Hats Producer Stefan Doroschuk

Released October 1989 April 23, 1990 (South Africa) Recorded 1988, Hudson Studios (Briarcliff Manor, New York) Nominations Juno Award for Recording Package of the Year Similar Men Without Hats albums, Electropop albums

The Adventures of Women & Men Without Hate in the 21st Century is the fourth studio album by Canadian synthpop group Men Without Hats, released in 1989. It was the second and last album to be released with the lineup of Ivan (vocals), Stefan Doroschuk (guitar), Marika Tjelios (bass), Richard Samson (drums) and Bruce Murphy (keyboards), which was also the lineup that toured to promote the previous album Pop Goes the World.

Recording history

The lineup that recorded the album was essentially the touring band from Pop Goes the World.

Ivan Doroschuk, in an interview released on a promotional disc around the time of the album, stated that the original title of the album was The Adventures of Men Without Hats in the 21st Century, but the title went through several revisions, including The Adventures of Men and Women Without Hats in the 21st Century before swapping the order of "Men and Women" around and changing the word "Hats" to "Hate". In the same interview, Ivan also explained that the band decided to omit their crossed-out-man-with-hat logo due to Ivan hearing about a Jamaican bar prohibiting Rastafarians from entering, which was indicated using a sign that looked similar to the group's logo. A new logo, a heart with the number 21 in it, was devised for the album, being used for all artwork related to the record.

The album was recorded in 1988 at a studio in Briarcliff Manor, New York. The group would return in 1990 to record the followup, Sideways.

The album is much more serious than the group's previous work, with lyrics focusing on subjects such as environmentalism ("In the 21st Century"), domestic violence ("Hey Men") and commercialism ("Everybody's Selling Something", "I'm in Love"). Alongside the left-wing politics of the aforementioned, there are also simple songs about love and life ("You and Me", "All We Do", "Eloise and I", "Underneath the Rainbow"). Musically, it is a pop rock album with slight synthpop influence.

Overall, half the album is dedicated to left-wing politics, while the other half is dedicated to love.

"All We Do", one of three ballads on the album, was written in 1986 and performed on the tour to promote Pop Goes the World. The other two ballads are "You and Me" and "Underneath the Rainbow".

The final track, "21st Century Safety Dance", was described by Ivan in the press release for the album as a "warning" track, explaining his beliefs that all music would sound like it unless people "got [their] act together".

Due to being recorded in the United States, the album does not qualify for the "P" (performance) element of MAPL Canadian content certification. The CD indicates that the album is 75% Canadian content (CanCon) except for "S.O.S.", which is 25% CanCon.

Singles

The initial track of this album and "Hey Men" both became singles with corresponding music videos. "Here Come the '90s" was also released as a promo single.

Charts

The album was certified Gold by Music Canada in October 1989, for Canadian sales of over 50,000 units.

Track listing

All tracks written by Ivan and Stefan Doroschuk except "S.O.S." by Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Stig Anderson..

On CD copies of the album, the intro to "Eloise and I" is indexed as a separate track running 1:10 (listed on some copies as "Intro: Eloise"), while the song itself runs 3:05.