Review Summary: Maybe their best work yet, but it doesn't jump out and grab you like Mass Romantic or Electric Version. Keep listening, you'll get it.
The New Pornographers, so much has been said about them. And perhaps it is not my place to be reviewing this album, because, yes, I am a fanboy, but perhaps it's harder for a fanboy to write a positive review of an album that marks so much change for a band. The band is working all together again, and after Twin Cinema and Challengers it's a welcome change. All of these songs are solid from beginning to end and there isn't one song that you want to skip because it ruins the flow of the song. Of course there is no more of the folky acoustic Neko-solo-song type things on this record like "Challengers" or "The Bones of an Idol", but there are elements of these songs here.
Ok, I guess it would be a good thing to tell you all that bird is the word, and, how the album sounds.
The sound was a bit confusing, I'll admit. The first track "Moves" is probably my favorite song right now, and it's simply because of the crazy cello-guitar interplay and Carl's beautiful vocals trying to sodomize my ears. MY EARS DON'T NEED THEIR ASSES RAPED CARL LEAVE THEM ALONE! I could be satisfied to have this kind of sound for the whole album, because I like the baroque pop feel the song invokes. But, it wouldn't be too exciting if they just stuck to that one sound would it?
Even the second song has the cellos in the mix, but it's totally a Neko song. But unlike previous albums, her song has Carl and Dan(?)'s harmonies buried deep behind the instruments, and there is so much going on. I can hear 2 guitars, a bass, drums, tambourine and cello. I mean, ***! "Bones of an Idol" was just Neko and an acoustic guitar! This is orgasmic!
So while this album is playing a little bit more, let me tell you about the problem we face as Americans in this day and age. I work at a grocery store as a cashier, and I notice every day that people have faces. This is a problem that needs to be solved as soon as possible. If you or a family member has a face quickly remove it by dunking the head in some sulfuric acid.
Anyways, unlike Abbey Road and the White Album, the Beatles really team up to make all of these songs seem like a group effort. I mean, the lightning fast blast beats, the down-tuned guitar, and don't forget John Lennon's death-like wails that will send a chill down your----
Most of the songs on this album are on the slower end of the spectrum, but the song that they debuted like a month and a half ago "Your Hands (Together)" is fairly fast paced and energetic. But more than that, it could probably fit on a heavy metal station, like KBPI here in Denver. I mean you've all heard that new Mudvayne song with that anthemic, yet stupid chorus. Imagine that, but the anthem thing is just the opening verse, the chorus is a rotating plethora of notes voiced by the amazing Neko case. And during that "put put put your hands together" there are two people singing, and there is more to it than just that line. It progresses dammit. This has gone off the point I wanted to make when I started this paragraph, but alas I am too lazy to delete it and start over.
"Your Hands (Together)" is what radio pop should sound like. It's catchy, it has great vocals and instrumentation, and it progresses. That chorus with the drum rolls and the beautiful harmony has the power to inspire me to wait to make a bowel movement just so I could hear the rest of the song.
There is one Neko solo song I guess. "My Shepherd" is all Neko, and god do I love it. That's all I have to say about that. Because the next song blows it out of the water. "If You Can't See My Mirrors" is folky and after every verse is a strangely eerie harmonic of "aaahh" it's almost as creepy as "I'm Only Sleeping" by the Beatles. But enough funny business.
"Valkyrie in the Roller Disco" is probably the most beautiful duet in music history. Neko Case and Carl Newman's voices work so well together that any song where they are harmonizing can grab your heart-strings and squeeze like a mother***er until you are on your knees unable to resist the happiness that they are shoving down your ***ing throat. Especially when you combine their harmony with a beautiful piano line, then to a guitar lick. God I love this band.
I must digress. This isn't like their first three records the songs don't jump out immediately and get caught in your head. They made an incredibly subtle record you have to listen to this multiple times to get into it. But once you do it's like you are in the happiest place imaginable.
