new New Pornographers

Amen to that

This is their best album at least since Challengers (which as I said above I regard as a classic - severely underrated at the time of its release). On first listen I loved every moment of the new one.

The title track is great!

http://pitchfork.com/news/71162-raffi-strongly-objects-to-new-pornographers-name-ac-newman-trolls-raffi/?mbid=homepage-more-latest-and-video

ac newman is kinda a giant weirdo

It's Raffi making a pretty mild criticism of the name which makes perfect sense of you consider who Raffi is, then Newman freaks out with 15 persecution complex tweets, gross

After A.C. Newman saw Raffi’s tweet, he said, “TFW someone whose music you loved as a child says mean things about your life’s work.” Newman then clarified that he’s “not very familiar” with Raffi’s music and was attempting to “make him feel bad” with his tweets.

speaking as someone who only seven days ago referenced puppetry of the penis here on ilxor dot com, i must move to condemn ac newman's comment that their show is 'in bad taste'

penis puppets for everyone

if raffi didn't want to get harassed by irritable indie rock celebrities he shouldn't have joined twitter

the new pornographers are one of my favorite bands and have been ridiculously consistent over the last 17 years not to mention all the incredible side projects from band members

also their name is dumb af

if ac newman didn't want to get sonned by raffi after a porno beef he shouldn't have been born

http://www.stereogum.com/1959728/the-new-pornographers-albums-from-worst-to-best/franchises/counting-down/

challops galore. Twin Cinema at #6 fine, fine, but the only way you can say "there’s never a moment that truly bursts from the speakers..." is if you've somehow muted the drum track on "the bleeding heart show."

Even accounting for the fact that the first two albums have many ardent supporters, there is no way that Twin Cinema should place any lower than #3.

I hope it comes out the same as Fountains of Wayne so that I have so much good music I just can't decide what to listen to.

I loved 2003

Ordering NP albums is weirdly difficult for me. I got into them around the time of Twin Cinema and bought the first three albums in nearly one go. The first two in particular I have always mixed up - literally, I listened to them combined and on shuffle for years. I can't really think of them as distinct entities.

And if I really zero in on the album I listen to most *as an album* - it's Challengers.

So I kinda want to say it's Mass Romantic>Electric Version>Challengers>Whiteout Conditions>Twin Cinema>Brill Bruisers>>Together

But in my heart I think it's actually Challengers>Electric Romantic>Whiteout Conditions>>>Twin Cinema>>>>I really don't listen to the other ones often even though they're good too.

I like the closing track of "Together" as much as I like anything else they've recorded since Electric Version.

this band is so good

and has been so consistently good

mass romantic and electric version have high highs but are honestly kinda fatiguing. i agree that Challengers is the most listenable as an album, even if it might not be the one i'd recommend as an intro to the band.

The guy is about as wrong as a person can be about Together, the first half of which is up with their best, before it all goes very dreary after "My Shepherd". I think Electric Version and Twin Cinema are the most consistently great, and it seems unlikely they'll get back to that level again, but all the albums have at least a smattering of gems. I have been very underwhelmed by the few things I've heard from Whiteout Conditions, but we'll see.

Whiteout Conditions is fantastic.

I really should give it another shot. I like "Play Money" a lot, but my attention drifts soon afterwards.

Brill Bruisers and Whiteout Conditions are next after the first two for me, right there with Twin Cinema.

I got into them around the time of Twin Cinema and bought the first three albums in nearly one go. The first two in particular I have always mixed up - literally, I listened to them combined and on shuffle for years. I can't really think of them as distinct entities.

Twin Cinema was also my introduction and yeah there was definitely a long while after I got the first two where I could never remember which songs were on which, they do feel very much of a piece (although I've come around to preferring Electric Version). Twin Cinema remains one of my favourite albums of the '00s. My ranking at the moment would be:

Twin Cinema>Electric Version>Brill Bruisers>Mass Romantic>Whiteout Conditions>>Challengers>>>Together

Challopian as the Stereogum revive may be (though I do think their top 2 is correct), it has made me play these records again and smdh what a brilliant fucking band this is. Their best hooks are like drugs, I can't even listen to it for hours on end because it's just too much, too glittery, too happy even.

Today this is the best song of all-time for me (and fucking great video, too):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn-LDCRL8Js

Challengers still mad underrated. It's better than everything that's followed.

"Unguided" is a bit of an albatross but "Go Places," "Myriad Harbor," "My Rights Versus Yours" and "Adventures in Solitude" are some of their very best songs

I like hearing this enthusiasm, because I really liked the first two records at the time, but am pretty unfamiliar with the rest of them except maybe Together, so will henceforth explore/relisten.

Oh man you have a world to explore then. They are so, so good, also after the first two records. Just dose it according to your preferred intake :)

And Simon H. completely otm about 'Challengers'.

some day i look forward to old-style polling new pornographers and associated solo acts

Hell yes, I'd be very much into that. AC Newman's solo album is such a treat, too. Let alone Neko.

album*s*!

Ha, verily! (my bad)

D@n and I squabbled amicably about his rankings on FB, with which I mostly disagree but who cares? Most of the writing is sharp. I'd no idea until a couple years ago that Twin Cinema is the consensus pick -- it got excellent reviews at the time but remember no real euphoria. Then not long afterward the ground shifted.

I didn't have any objections to Whiteout Conditions other than my boredom with power pop.

I never experienced Twin Cinema as the consensus pick, but then that's only in relation to my 'bubble'. Always thought the quintessential NP album was, still, Mass Romantic tbh.

But you are so right: it doesn't really matter when your discography is this consistently great.

Electric Version was my first NP album and it will always be the consensus #1 in my eyes

I think I probably burned out on them pretty early on, because power-pop, but that's my problem, not theirs.

challengers is their best album imo but yeah the distinction is meaningless

I read the Stereogum article and ended up spending some time with the catalogue as well. I'd always had TC #1, but the production is kind of lacking there.
New #1-Electric Version. (I think they could have recorded Twin Cinema the song on a boombox and it would still be great though).

Speaking of Newman's solo albums - how does everyone rate them? I had the first one and liked it fine, though it kinda felt like diet cola compared to NP material. Never followed up with his subsequent solo stuff but have been meaning to.

i like all of them but new pornographers lite is a good description

get guilty is maybe my fave

yeah same, i think the best of get guilty hangs with peak nps but wouldn't say that about the other two

I've never warmed to Destroyer the way I have his NP tracks.

love The Slow Wonder, never got into the rest

True story. I was listening to the new OMD (which is good). Next up in the queue was (I learned retroactively) "Brill Bruisers," which I'd literally never heard. The OMD album is playing when my wife pops in, but she doesn't say anything. Then seconds later I notice the music has changed.

"What is this?" she suddenly asks. "It sounds familiar."

"Well, it had been OMD, so it should be familiar," I say. "But I was just wondering what it was myself, because I think the album switched."

"Hmm," she answered. "Reminds me of the New Pornographers."

Which I think is nuts impressive, because she likes the NPs when they're on, but they're almost never on here, and she's never asked to hear them, but was immediately able to identify an album I'd literally never heard or played before (and neither had she) as the NPs. Good for her, I say. And good for them!

we should just poll them at this point, I've spent so much time listening since that Stereogum article. Thanks Dan!
Current ranking:
EV
TC
MR
BB
everything else.