Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the New Pornographers are back
SACKVILLE, N.B. (CUP) — I don't believe that I've ever met anyone who has felt indifferently towards The New Pornographers. I imagine there can only be extremes when listening to their music: either intense dislike or, more likely, intense obsession. Their music is certainly a reflection of the extremes they inspire—it's quiet or ear-splittingly loud or sparse and moments later, layered with different sounds that you can barely tell what genre they belong to.
The New Pornographers had their first official rehearsal in 1997 after Carl Newman assembled a group of musician friends and acquaintances that he felt were “ridiculously talented” and “equipped to realize his musical ambitions.” Each of the musicians were (and are) involved in projects other than the Pornographers, including Newman's own solo career, releasing albums as A.C. Newman and with Zumpano, Dan Bejar's band Destroyer, Blaine Thurier's filmmaking career, and of course Neko Case who has been involved in countless bands including her own alt-country solo work.
The band recorded their first single “Letter to an Occupant,” but the needs of other projects took precedence and Newman's idea was pushed to the sidelines for a while. Nevertheless, the band members never forgot about the Pornographers and they began recording “over quite a long period of time in sporadic bursts of frantic activity, with long periods of inactivity in between” what would eventually become 2000's Mass Romantic.
What began as an experiment, a band's side-project, produced an incomparable sound that may at first seem to be wild and erratic. Upon closer inspection, what can be found are intricately woven sounds and harmonies, intense wit, and melodies and loops that are impossible to forget.
The members of the group, all hailing from different musical backgrounds, bring something to the Pornographers' sound—often elements that would not normally be put together. Case's strong, fiery vocals create an immense effect when mixed with Newman and Bejar's nasal, sometimes falsetto, vocals, and challenge the regular use of female vocals in rock music.
Embedded in Mass Romantic is an intensity and spontaneity not often heard in popular music. You almost feel like you're listening to something that happened as a happy coincidence, almost as though the album should never have come into existence and you are lucky just to be hearing it. The experimental nature of the band and its first album can also be felt in the music, as if they began recording with no expectations concerning their sound or the reaction it would receive.
In the notes on the album's liner, it says that “all junior high school bands and choirs” are an “endless inspiration” to the Pornographers, and you can tell. The band plays their instruments and sings their lyrics with the abandon of children who are simply having fun. There's a frantic energy to the album, barely leaving the listener with enough time to take a breath as the Pornographers move seamlessly between songs, all played in “a blaze of pipe organ, Wurlitzer, mini korg, and what-have-you.”
As the hype that followed the release of Mass Romantic began to die down, members of the band turned back to their solo projects and other bands, and fans had to wait three years until the release of Electric Version in 2003. If the album lost any of the spontaneity of Mass Romantic, it more than made up for it with a more refined, polished sound, more Wurlitzer and organ than ever, and consistently clever and catchy songs such as the title track's ironic and amusing look at the use of electronics in music, or the strange pageant of “Miss Teen Wordpower.”
As the album's name implies, there is certainly a larger reliance on synths and electronic sounds. Electric Version is even more upbeat than Mass Romantic, toning down the edgy guitars of the previous album while bringing in more upbeat loops and focusing on the contrasting vocals of Newman and Case.
Electric Version did what a good second album should always do: it showed change in the band, while at the same time keeping with what was best about the group in the first place.
Fans of the New Pornographers suffered another period of withdrawal again waiting for another album. The much-hyped Twin Cinema, which was finally released at the end of August, may be a shock to Pornographers purists used to an intense barrage of high-treble hooks and synths.
While that's all still there, there are also some differences: there are a few songs which are slower than 100 beats per minute. Some songs feature an acoustic guitar, such as “These are Fables,” and some actually contain (gasp) minor chords. There is a noticeable move away from the direction that the Pornographers took with Electric Version. The addition of sweet-voiced piano player Kathryn Calder tones down some of the synths but makes a nice combination with other, more traditional, instruments like the cello and mandolin.
Newman has admitted to consciously wanting to make a more introspective, sprawling album, which The New Pornographers have certainly done with Twin Cinema. The different sound of this album is no reason for worry, but rather a chance for us to obsess over the brilliance of The New Pornographers.
The New Pornographers had their first official rehearsal in 1997 after Carl Newman assembled a group of musician friends and acquaintances that he felt were “ridiculously talented” and “equipped to realize his musical ambitions.” Each of the musicians were (and are) involved in projects other than the Pornographers, including Newman's own solo career, releasing albums as A.C. Newman and with Zumpano, Dan Bejar's band Destroyer, Blaine Thurier's filmmaking career, and of course Neko Case who has been involved in countless bands including her own alt-country solo work.
The band recorded their first single “Letter to an Occupant,” but the needs of other projects took precedence and Newman's idea was pushed to the sidelines for a while. Nevertheless, the band members never forgot about the Pornographers and they began recording “over quite a long period of time in sporadic bursts of frantic activity, with long periods of inactivity in between” what would eventually become 2000's Mass Romantic.
What began as an experiment, a band's side-project, produced an incomparable sound that may at first seem to be wild and erratic. Upon closer inspection, what can be found are intricately woven sounds and harmonies, intense wit, and melodies and loops that are impossible to forget.
The members of the group, all hailing from different musical backgrounds, bring something to the Pornographers' sound—often elements that would not normally be put together. Case's strong, fiery vocals create an immense effect when mixed with Newman and Bejar's nasal, sometimes falsetto, vocals, and challenge the regular use of female vocals in rock music.
Embedded in Mass Romantic is an intensity and spontaneity not often heard in popular music. You almost feel like you're listening to something that happened as a happy coincidence, almost as though the album should never have come into existence and you are lucky just to be hearing it. The experimental nature of the band and its first album can also be felt in the music, as if they began recording with no expectations concerning their sound or the reaction it would receive.
In the notes on the album's liner, it says that “all junior high school bands and choirs” are an “endless inspiration” to the Pornographers, and you can tell. The band plays their instruments and sings their lyrics with the abandon of children who are simply having fun. There's a frantic energy to the album, barely leaving the listener with enough time to take a breath as the Pornographers move seamlessly between songs, all played in “a blaze of pipe organ, Wurlitzer, mini korg, and what-have-you.”
As the hype that followed the release of Mass Romantic began to die down, members of the band turned back to their solo projects and other bands, and fans had to wait three years until the release of Electric Version in 2003. If the album lost any of the spontaneity of Mass Romantic, it more than made up for it with a more refined, polished sound, more Wurlitzer and organ than ever, and consistently clever and catchy songs such as the title track's ironic and amusing look at the use of electronics in music, or the strange pageant of “Miss Teen Wordpower.”
As the album's name implies, there is certainly a larger reliance on synths and electronic sounds. Electric Version is even more upbeat than Mass Romantic, toning down the edgy guitars of the previous album while bringing in more upbeat loops and focusing on the contrasting vocals of Newman and Case.
Electric Version did what a good second album should always do: it showed change in the band, while at the same time keeping with what was best about the group in the first place.
Fans of the New Pornographers suffered another period of withdrawal again waiting for another album. The much-hyped Twin Cinema, which was finally released at the end of August, may be a shock to Pornographers purists used to an intense barrage of high-treble hooks and synths.
While that's all still there, there are also some differences: there are a few songs which are slower than 100 beats per minute. Some songs feature an acoustic guitar, such as “These are Fables,” and some actually contain (gasp) minor chords. There is a noticeable move away from the direction that the Pornographers took with Electric Version. The addition of sweet-voiced piano player Kathryn Calder tones down some of the synths but makes a nice combination with other, more traditional, instruments like the cello and mandolin.
Newman has admitted to consciously wanting to make a more introspective, sprawling album, which The New Pornographers have certainly done with Twin Cinema. The different sound of this album is no reason for worry, but rather a chance for us to obsess over the brilliance of The New Pornographers.
