"Power Over Men" is a single from London singer-songwriter Jamie T's (Jamie Treays) upcoming fourth album Trick. While Jamie T is relatively unknown in the US, he has racked up some critical acclaim in the UK. His debut album Panic Prevention (2007) - the titles references his social anxiety - was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize that year, and Treays went on to win the Best Solo Artist award at the 2007 NME Awards. The NME described him as a "genuine voice, the sort of untrained, maverick personality that doesn't come along too often."
Treays has been described as a 'one man Arctic Monkeys', and "Power Over Men" makes it easy to see why. It offers a powerful, sing-a-long hook ('She had power over men/ Oooh-oooh-ooh-ooh') alongside some dynamic and rhythmic guitars. Treays' sound is familiar and reassuring to those familiar with British indie rock - it's his sharp, intelligent lyricism that allows the song to pleasantly surprise. As The Guardian's Rachel Aroesti observed, "Treays’s idea of a good time seems to be bouncy, amusing, narrative-driven pop charged with an infectious and un-self-conscious energy". Treays wears his lyrical ambitions lightly; his shouty and seemingly spontaneous vocal stylings inject some juvenile brashness and swagger into an otherwise mature and assured record.
The accompanying music video, which oversees the transformation of a middle-aged housewife into a suburban dominatrix (who really relishes the power she wields in the bedroom) is a literal take on the song's lyrical content. The S&M scene involving cookies and tea was particularly unusual: a pointed subversion of the kind of polite gentility that most people associate British middle class and upper class culture with.
