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If you were to ask ‘What do you get if you cross a group of Canadian musicians, a cartoonist filmmaker and a Neko Case?‘ it might sound like the start of a bad joke, but The New Pornographers career so far has been anything but. A startlingly strong trio of power pop records that challenged the brain as much as the viscera placed them alongside peers Broken Social Scene before the twinkle of new millennia had even left the eye. Though last album (and fourth in line) ‘Challengers’ was uncharacteristically dour in tone for the more rabid Porno fan, it also showed them to be developing a more austere, cinematic sound, which seemed to fit better to the band’s transient nature.
Rather than a concrete loss of form ‘Challengers’ more mature sound was merely the culmination of a trajectory that started with Twin Cinema’s more forlorn moments, in which sometime leader A.C. Newman and band built up sound from a huddled revelry, rather than the all out pop assault we’d become acquainted to. Sure, some might say that Newman might not be the hit factory he once was, but it’s unfair to dismiss someone that can write a cerebral pop gem like ’Letter From An Occupant’ or ’Use It’ when he feels like trying something new.
Though ‘Challengers’ mellowed to the point of inertia at times what it did well was highlight the cadence and nuance that the band can exert whilst still been eight strong. Here they’ve refined that even further, allowing the tempo to ebb and flow as each member decrees, whilst reintroducing the power pop elements that made them great in the first place. ‘Together’ says it all really, throughout the album the band’s voices constantly crash and break against each other - and, as they‘re joined intermittently by a raft of stars such as Beirut‘s Zach Condon and St. Vincent‘s Annie Clark, the noise only grows louder. In unison, such as on opener ‘Moves’ or on the breezy glam of ‘Your Hands (Together)’ the group sound positively deafening, and Newman manages to marry the new, symphonic qualities of his writing perfectly to the buzz saw pop that made earlier albums such a success.
Katherine Calder takes control for the restrained pop bounce of ‘Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk,’ though it’s Destroyer front man Dan Bejar and all round solo doyenne Neko Case that lead the troupe whilst Newman takes a back seat. Case steals the show on stand out ‘Crash Years’, her voice pitching higher and lower in unison with the violins that strain out one of Newman’s trademark riffs, and Bajer’s inclusion in the band might have seemed odd on previous output, but his three contributions here fit perfectly with their new orchestral leanings. With a debonair style that’s a welcome relief from Newman’s more strung out arrangement, even if Bejar’s Country Garden enunciation might cloy on repeat listens, counterbalanced by Case and Calder’s lilting ‘la la las’ on ‘Silver Jenny Dollar; or the combined force of the group’s pin point harmonising on ‘Daughters Of Sorrow’, it’s hardly more than a minor concern.
Forging distinctive voices into something that allows each to be heard whilst also retaining cohesion, and doing it well, is a rare thing. The New Pornographers might not be the group they once were, but that doesn’t mean they’re any worse off for it. ‘Together’ might not be the return to form some were hoping for, but it’s a step further towards a place the band always alluded they might end up. And that place, wherever it is, could well yield their best moments yet.
