MASS ROMANTIC

lol

"slow descent" has slightly edged out "letter from an occupant" today

since this is maybe the most active a New Pornos thread has been in my 10+ years on ILM, i want to take the opportunity to say something i've said elsewhere: this band is responsible for the best recorded catalog of the 21st century so far. which makes this album the first all-killer-no-filler step on that incredible journey.

thank u carl, neko, dan, old drummer, new drummer, guy with the hair, guy with the beard, carl's niece whose name i really should remember, keyboard guy who looks bored as fuck during shows, new lady singer and maybe another guy if there's another guy i'm forgetting about (but i don't think there is).

luv u Noodle Vague

<<3 same and apologies for being drunchenhausen

it's a fucking perfect albumen tho while we're on

it and Electric Version, both, imo

sorry i said you had wrong opinions about this i guess i misread you earlier? idk

“Guy with the hair” maybe the guitar player Fancey, who put out an excellent indie summer AM gold record around this same time: https://open.spotify.com/album/0tCBKBJiuNyAzyBiVV0PfJ?si=2crCKnm9RU2OzsCEZT8xug

If we link to stuff can we link to YouTube and Spotify versions? Not everyone has given in to the Spotify hegemon.

Are you talking about the first Fancey album from 2004?

Yes 04

Whole album is great but this poll should have two fucking options:

Letter Bridge--->Chorus
Letter Outro--->Chorus

Either of these smoke everything else, no fools left standing.

Honorable mention (since no one else has?): In To Wild Homes, Neko handing the lower "to wild homes" off to the higher male (AC?) "to wild homes" then joining back in together.

The actually correct answer is "Letter from an Occupant" but I'm gonna throw a vote to "Jackie"

it’s amazing how all these songs exist in my head as a jumble of nonsense syllables. plenty of evocative imagery but as far as i glean any meaning from them, it might as well be in farsi

or maybe it’s more a language that i vaguely remember like hebrew or spanish where i excitedly latch onto the few phrases i actually understand

I voted "Mystery Hours" for the line about a "sticky glavin," which I am disappointed to learn is not only not the lyric, but is not even easily mistakable for the lyric.

ended up voting for the obvious one, but was tempted to toss a vote to Mary Martin Show

Want to point out that even before I knew of the anniversary this past week, I'd blasted "Mary Martin Show" because a workshop participant's manuscript mentioned Mary Martin. Weird!

i'm going to vote for "Centre for Holy Wars" because i know "Letter" and the title track are gonna finish 1-2, and rightfully so

i am legitimately interested to see how much "Letter" wins by.

weird, I've been annoying the neighbours with SALVATION HOLD OUT CENTRAL for a week as I noodle around on the piano.

EXACTLY WHERE WE ARRRE
in the center for HOOOLY WAAR

HOPE IT NEVER COMES DOWN AGAIN
LOATING IN THE AAA
FUH- AAA
AAA
AAA
AIR

aw hell
that didn't work at all

Lol apologies for drunky over enthusiasm last night everybody

"Slow Descent" over "Letter"

needed to relisten to this start to finish for the first time in years to make an informed choice and I gotta say it hasn’t help narrow my decision at all

it’s amazing how all these songs exist in my head as a jumble of nonsense syllables. plenty of evocative imagery but as far as i glean any meaning from them, it might as well be in farsi

Me too. Maybe for that reason, I find that I have a hard time remembering which of these songs is which. I like them all, but they kind of blur together into one song in my mind. (Except Slow Descent, and maybe Fake Headlines as well.)

Ha, did the same thing, will, and then just voted for one of the ones I was going to vote for anyway

xp yeah I find myself mixing and matching verses and choruses in my head. they all work pretty well next to each other.

I kind of stopped learning song titles and listening closely to lyrics for a few decades but recently those activities have made a comeback.

I still remember all these lyrics after not listening to this record for 15+ years. Clearly was very influenced by the way these lyrics work, same with Destroyer, whom I am also binging on right now.

James Redd, I also don't know the names of any songs, it's a practice I've totally let go. I can identify artists and sing along with lyrics when tracks have them.

i'm doing some recipe testing for a friend who is working on a cookbook, and tonight's project involved testing a stronger-than-i-would-make rum and bourbon punch (there is a legitimate reason why, but explaining it would give away the premise of the book). so tonight's dinner prep was a full run through mass romantic plus this punch recipe and man, it was a pretty good time. i like almost all of the NPs albums but they never did a pure front to back dopamine rush like this again.

“front to back dopamine rush” otm, few albums by any artists are aimed as directly at the pleasure center of the brain

Yeah I just listened to it twice in a row, after skipping around the past few days. It's an incredible record, almost wish I could change my vote to 'Fake Headlines.'

Are there any tracks we think won't get any votes, or which will get the fewest? Breakin' the Law?

bottom three will be Breakin' the Law (zero votes), Execution Day (zero) and Mystery Hours (one)

Good calls.

voted for body cause IIII NEEDED HER TO

it’s amazing how all these songs exist in my head as a jumble of nonsense syllables. plenty of evocative imagery but as far as i glean any meaning from them, it might as well be in farsi

Me too -- this for me has never been a band where I think hard about the lyrics or even generally know what they are, it's about the syllables and the sounds. I would be mildly disappointed if I ever found out any of the songs were about anything.

torn between ensuring “mass romantic” charts and not splitting the “slow descent” vote. let’s try this on and see how it fits

THIS BOY’S LIFE
AMONG THE ELECTRICALLLL LIGHTS
THIS BOY’S LIFE
AMONG THE ELECTRICALLLL LIGHTS

hmm yeah may be “slow descent”

Regarding the lyrics, it might be helpful to note that an experimental school of poetry was very influential in Vancouver at the time, and oftentimes the lyrics have some resonances with that more literary movement.

yeah the lyrics & phrasing have often been a stumbling block for me with them - newmans writing often feels like a complete avalanche of syllables. I'm trying to keep up and parse the crazy imagery, meanwhile the band is mashing away at max intensity... when it hits it HITS, but other times wish i could do a fan remix where I could just mute every other line or something, just to put some space in there

i'm doing some recipe testing for a friend who is working on a cookbook, and tonight's project involved testing a stronger-than-i-would-make rum and bourbon punch

weirdly, last night i was also taste-testing rum drinks out of a weird recipe book while cranking this album!

and when you see the bruises on my legs from kicking pills yeah
then you see how recklessly the pages are filled!!!!!

MAKE HEADLINES
BELIEVE THEM
COME BACK

VISUALIZE SUCCESS

but don't believe your eyes
what's a version of the world
without the will to despise it

i like newman's lyrics a lot but i always thought he had the unenviable job of being on the same records as dan bejar

all right more hot takes: the first four new pornos records are basically all as good as each other, but electric version > mass romantic

opening verse of "chump change" is like the peak of music and lyrics 4 me