new New Pornographers

Like a scrappy Fleetwood Mac after a few rounds of Canadian Club.
Prolly the best one-liner description of the Newps to date, nyet?

new single - Crash Years :

Neko sings, with clean and rich production (flutes, violins,guitars,whistles..), that reminds me more of the Newman solo Get Guilty sound, as oppose to Hands (Together) which sounds like a Twin Cinema outtake i guess.

very good tune.

totally dig crash years.

aww . . . hands (together) is better than an outtake.

this band has a lot more in the tank than some gave them credit for after the underrated challengers (ac newman solo albums, otoh . . .)

samples of all the songs from the new album can be found on the RYM page, here:

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the_new_pornographers/together/

1st impression:
sounds like a continuation of the last Newman solo LP (same producer in both) and Challengers, only with Bejar and Case added on vocals, of course.

That's disappointing. Don't love either of those.

Excellent.

sounds like a continuation of the last Newman solo LP (same producer in both) and Challengers, only with Bejar and Case added on vocals, everything they've made up to this point, of course.

Fixed.

(I really liked a good 9 or more of those 12 samples. Even the first Bejar track seemed enjoyable.

the samples sound fantastic. more "rock," less "power-pop," with a renewed emphasis on drums and the newman/case close harmonies. super excited about the disc.

So, this did what sinks do. L****d. Have to say, first listen (halfway through) and this is much better than Challengers.

Way better than Challengers, very low-key feel most of the way through, or at least low-key for them. Maybe I'm misremembering the first couple albums but the tempos feel slower. "Up in the Dark" is my favorite on first blush -- great combination of their classic sounds with the weird time signature, metronomic guitars, and ungodly catchy vocal lines.

nothing new here, from a band that sounds different (at least to some extent) on each album -
sadly, they are repeating themselves only without the energy,the brilliant tunes, and the interesting production.

i wish they would take some risk at this point, but maybe you can't do in yr 40's what you could do when you were younger.or just don't want to anymore.

i haven't heard the new one, but what would be a risk for this band? ten-minute songs? lo-fi production? Genuinely curious. The New Pornos aren't really a band I look to for risk-taking or wild new directions. I just expect harmonies/energy/bejar/case/hooks.

btw, when i was typing that the Pretenders' "message of love" came on the stereo -- sounded like the New Pornographers there at first!

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