new New Pornographers

i think Twin Cinema was risk taking at it's best in terms of production.

i mean, i don't want them to become like Built To spill for example - where from one point every record sounds as boringly the same as the previous and so on..
or (please don't kill me) Sonic Youth for that matter...

i don't know about "risk taking." it's certainly a change, i think. as i say, it sounds less "power-pop," and more "rock." so maybe not risk-taking but still . . . different.

and yeah, this: "I just expect harmonies/energy/bejar/case/hooks."

did a bit of a double-take at this -- "maybe you can't do in yr 40's what you could do when you were younger.or just don't want to anymore." -- but only because i'm 42. and maybe it's true. who knows.

what was risk-taking in the production of twin cinema??

i was wondering that, too, but i ain't gonna say anything bad about that album. it was my favorite disc of the decade for a long time, until i totally burned it out from overplaying it.

they used an e-bow on a couple songs.

I think "Challengers" is great, and underrated by most. I think it's almost as good as "Twin Cinema," actually.

Twin Cinema is not as slick and accessible as Electric Version and Mass Romantic were.
it was rawer, dirtier and more aggressive.

what was risk-taking in the production of twin cinema??

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, April 21, 2010 5:09 PM

^^

Re: Twin Cinema production-I remember some bitching about excessive use of compression.

anyway, my point is i wish they had made some risk taking/changes with the new album, but they didn't

HOW DARE YOU THINK THAT. (no, whatevs, that's fine)

btw, i do like the Newman twitter:
http://twitter.com/acnewman

I'm very happy Twin Cinema's considered their best by lots of you.

re: his twitter, Newman's a funny guy ... hey have I shared my interview with him with ILM before? Here it is: http://www.junkmedia.org/index.php?i=1677 It turned out OK.

Yeah, Twin Cinema[i]'s my favourite of theirs, but [i]Challengers is second — probably a sentiment not shared by many.

i like 'em all but for me it's a sliding scale. not that I think they're just getting worse and worse, just that Mass Romantic and Electric Version are so good.

I love Challengers lots. It's a grower though. The first three felt like a trilogy, and Challengers came off like the subtle start of something different.

i want more big huge drums (like Twin Cinema), more Bejar, less Kathryn.

Challengers took a long time to like (for me), but now I'll rep hard for it under almost any circumstances. (Still like Twin Cinema most of all, though.)

As far as Twin Cinema's risk-taking, I remember thinking at the time that "Stacked Crooked" was unlike anything they'd done. Likewise, but less so, for "Falling Through Your Clothes."

Which tracks on the new one has Neko singing lead?

"My Shepard" and "Crash Years." She's a pretty huge presence throughout the record, though.

I'm really digging this, but I like all of their records. I'm especially fond of the two advance tracks, "Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk" and Bejar's three songs.

Still hard for me to differentiate between Neko and Kathryn when they're in the background.

i like kathryn's voice a lot.

Loving the sorta title track! Already much better overall than Challengers, their worst. Vocals more out front. Quirkier structurally than anything previous. A touch too stately (though not as sleepy as Challengers). But still a good show so far. Mr. says it sounds like Liz Phair (which means late Liz Phair)...

OMG! You heard it here first: "Your Hands (Together)" is the power pop "Paranoid."

i like kathryn's voice a lot.

― Daniel, Esq., Thursday, April 22, 2010 1:35 AM (20 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Have you heard her other band, Immaculate Machine?

no. i mean, i knew she was in another band, but i've never heard them. are they good?

they're not that great.

i like her overall contribution to the band, btw. she seems so happy to be there. newman seems that way, too. their enthusiasm is infectious.

kathryn is awesome and v. cute obv

man, i love me some Twin Cinema

LOLz at you punks discussing the subtle production differences of their albums. This band is all about the songwriting, man! The best album = the one with the best songs.

do not do not deny me, tonight i lost the deaaaaallllllll
do not do not deny me, my achilles' heeeeeeeeeeeeel

emusic's early review has me excited for this disc:

Together, the fifth record from interstate pop consortium the New Pornographers, is a masterpiece of construction, each little filigree, each rush of guitar, each organ speck perfectly placed. It’s drum-tight, and as effortless in its expertise as an Olympian.

Which is another way of saying that all A.C. Newman really wants is to be our Jeff Lynne, and Together makes the strongest case in years that he’s up to the task. Waking up after the long nap that was 2007’s Challengers, Together finds Newman & Co. muscling up and catapulting hooks over the high walls of the heart with more volume and determination than ever. Challengers had a boxer on the cover — Together has one in the songs. Like Lynne, who once lamented that his paradise was fading “like the Beatles in ‘Hey Jude,’” Newman understands the world in terms of pop music, and all energies are focused toward the artful — and, at times, elaborate — construction of the same. His songs are like ships in a bottle: You stand back and admire the craftsmanship and accept the fact that you’re never going to get close to them. If there’s any emotional resonance, it’s been walled up behind obtuse phrase-turns like “Valkyrie, don’t go home/ It’s not right, leave with the lights up.” He even manages to get Neko Case and Dan Bejar, two of the most beguiling and inventive lyricists working today, to shelve their predilections and indulge in a game of hide-the-gravitas. The unexpected upside is that when the players do drop their guard, the results are genuinely startling. Hearing Case sadly refer to an ex-lover as “a tall glass of blast from the past” or lament “What’s love, but what turns up in the dark” is deep-down moving — the rare moment where the clown starts sweating off his makeup and you can see the patch of actual flesh beneath.

But let’s not get too carried away: Looking for meaning is beside the point. The playing’s the thing, and Together is crammed with masterful performances. On the whole, it’s gutsier than the group has sounded in eons, brimming with confidence and swagger. To further cement those ELO comparisons, it also finds the band betraying a greater fondness for ornate string arrangements. Most of the songs are gussied up with pirouetting violins and divebombing cellos, giving them a kind of butter cream elegance. “The Crash Years,” which takes its place near the top of the list of Best New Pornographers Songs of All Time, pits low strings against Case’s stratospheric red-orange wail, working up to a wide-open chorus. The Bejar-belted “Silver Jenny Dollar” sounds like sudden realization, its exclamation-point guitars pogo-sticking around the foreground as Bejar coos the obtuse lyric “they holler Silver Jenny Dollar” with cool detachment. “Someone Took a Bite Out of My Bed” is nothing but blazing sun, and “Daughters of Sorrow” turns Bejar and Case into a bizarro world Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack, trading plasticine R&B verses as Kathryn Calder bongs like a bell behind them. As if the group wasn’t already star-studded, Newman has rounded out the ensemble with a supporting cast of indie rock all-stars: Okkervil River’s Will Sheff lends vocals to the churning opener “The Moves,” Annie Clark’s guitar chug-a-chugs on the chorus of the wistful “My Shepherd,” Zach Condon of Beirut blasts a bright trumpet on “A Bite Out of my Bed” and the Dap-Kings act as the group’s own personal JB’s throughout. Unsurprisingly, the guests never upstage — everyone here is acting in service of the song.

The record’s title may or may not be a reference to the group’s ostensibly troubled internal dynamics — the reportage of which is the kind of thing that passes for salacious gossip in indie rockdom — but it also serves as a signpost of what’s in store. The Pornographers sound more focused and unified and impenetrable than ever, and the record is a testament to the sheer brute force they’re capable of when all cylinders are firing at once. To quote Newman himself, “I must have brought the weather back with me/ soaked us till we’re see-through and dripping.”

Whatever it is that means.

This one is a grower, my impression. I almost feel like BUYING this record.

NPR is now streaming the disc.

this album brings the goods. it is not the sleepier -- albeit still greatly underrated -- challengers. it's much closer to "rock" than "power-pop." as mentioned upthread, the attention-grabbing drum patterns and fills are back. the harmonies sour much higher than on the last disc. the hooks are sharper. it sags a little after a very strong four-song opening, but then again -- at least for me -- all the band's discs have a weak stretch in them. but it doesn't do much to dim the overall strength of the disc. this is a very, very good disc.

excited!

i'm not usually a fan of the bejar songs on the new pornographers' discs, but i love love love his if you can't see my mirrors from the new disc.

On initial listens, this album sounds superb. The first six songs at least - yowza!

Album is typically, if kinda soullessly, fantastic. Consistent, diligent, and immaculate.

okay, but no more or less soulless than their other discs, right?

i don't think i'd ever describe the band as soulful. just not that kind of act.

(i wouldn't describe, say, elo as soulful either, and i love elo (and the new pornographers' new disc reminds me of elo in some ways)).

okay, but no more or less soulless than their other discs, right?

i don't think i'd ever describe the band as soulful. just not that kind of act.

― Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, April 27, 2010 11:10 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yeah, same old. Typical TNP album. I'm not at all complaining.

This record sounds good, just like all of their releases do. By this point, they have enough to fill an absolutely killer greatest hits record.

this is out today

it sure is. my wife bought it and she says it's great! so there's one review for you. i haven't listened yet.