or better or worse, we here at Stylus, in all of our autocratic consumer-crit greed, are slaves to timeliness. A record over six months old is often discarded, deemed too old for publication, a relic in the internet age. That's why each week at Stylus, one writer takes a look at an album with the benefit of time. Whether it has been unjustly ignored, unfairly lauded, or misunderstood in some fundamental way, we aim with On Second Thought to provide a fresh look at albums that need it.

Anyone who has watched the Canadian sketch comedy show The Kids in the Hall has at least heard of the Shadowy Men. They, for the five years of its existence, performed the theme song and served as the show’s house band. As it turns out, these Shadowy Men were a lot more than just a house band; they were a real band who had several releases throughout the 80s and early 90s. Savvy Show Stoppers is a compilation of sorts, a collection of 7” singles the band self-released from 1985-1988. Because of this, the album feels a little mish-mashed. Nevertheless, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet managed to put out a release of high quality here, regardless of the actual presentation of the tracks.

Many of the songs will be at least partially familiar to fans of The Kids in the Hall: music which accompanied the various bumper videos before commercials and in between sketches shows up in the form of the high-intensity, trebly rush of “Musical Interlude” and “Theme From TV”. Also, an extended version of the Kids in the Hall theme song appears as “Having an Average Weekend”. In fact, the majority of the tracks on this album are of high quality with no noticeable missteps.

With Savvy Show Stoppers, the band’s fusion of surf music and early 80s punk is at its genesis. In just over a half-hour, the band manages to create a fun and highly energetic atmosphere with the ever so slightest (but perfect) sly comic touches. Throughout, nearly each and every song exudes an elusive playfulness making the album a wonderfully fun listen. Even on some of the darker tracks on Savvy Show Stoppers (such as “Good Cop, Bad Cop”, “Shake Some Evil” and “Zombie Compromise”), it seems very clear that the group is nodding and smiling as they play. Simply put, it can sound both sinister and fun.

The sound of the Shadowy Men is very much strongly footed in the surf and punk camps. They manage to cultivate all of the fun elements of each and combine them into something unique. It provides a nice mirror to each of those two styles, but then inverts it on itself and focuses it through the conventions of dance music. Nearly everything on the album serves as a great dance song of some sort – slow or fast. And while it may not be the deepest or most innovative form of music around, it sure makes for great fun. The Shadowy Men are clearly a band with songwriting talent, as well as the talent to entertain its audience and bring a smile to their collective faces.