* Following on the heels of their monumental "Don't Need Smoke to Make Myself Disappear" 7", Pissed Jeans drop album number 2 and theirSub Pop debut: Hope for Men (we like to think of it in the "mankind" sense).* For those who found a glimmer of the stuff on the aforementioned single (two pressings of which have sold out), the album delivers more,and in abundance. That is to say, if classic, thick-as-glue punk bombast and sludge stoke the coals of your existence, you have found, notonly your new favorite band, but a reason to get up in the morning.* Their first single, "Throbbing Organ" and album, Shallow (both on Parts Unknown) set many self-styled punk scholars' hearts a-flutter. Songslike "Ugly Twin" sent jaws floor-ward by including a plaintive piano part in a bruiser of a song. Such touches abound on Hope for Men. Thealbum is diverse, but the Jeans ain't no dilettantes. Mixing volatility with humor is a damned hard thing to master in music. Pissed Jeans doit with smarts and poignancy. Consider the bar raised.