Together is album No. 5 for the indie-pop “supergroup” The New Pornographers. Very little about the Canadian band’s sound has changed since its breakout third album Twin Cinema in 2005, which means the group is still one of the best sounding bands around, proving once again it is more than capable of delivering a rollicking rock record.
There has always been something intangible about The New Pornographers’ work. Lead singer-songwriter A.C. Newman and co. understand how to guide listeners through sonic twists and turns. But this time around, they seem to be unwilling to totally give in, at least not in the same ways they have in the past.
Though their last album Challengers had songs such as “Failsafe,” which was wonderfully odd and sublime, most tracks on Together are somewhat standard as far as New Pornographers songs go. Singer-songwriter Dan Bejar’s voice is a sure sign of strangeness to come, but the first Bejar-led track on Together is “Silver Jenny Dollar,” a surprisingly standard track.
Diverging from a hit-or-miss work such as Challengers is not a bad thing — Together certainly tops it. But nothing on the new album has nearly as much the same replay value as a lot of the group’s older songs (think “Stacked Crooked” or “Myriad Harbour”), and that is probably intentional.
Though the previous album had its moments, Together proves Challengers was a snoozer all around.
Together is a taut, throbbing display of songsmanship. Listened to as a whole, one starts to get excited about how the next song is going to begin or will be mixed because the New Pornographers are — above all else — a band that knows what it is doing with its songwriting.
It is practically an arena rock record, more like Bruce Springsteen than Journey, and quite tongue-in-cheek. Opening tracks “Moves” and “Crash Yours” have enough drum rolls and power chords for the rest of the set, but there’s also some whistling on “Crash Yours” and a funny organ.
“Moves” layers it on with syrupy sounds: string, distortion and synthesizers in unison. Later on, big sounds abide during “A Bite Out of My Bed” or the slowly approaching grandeur of “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk.”
There are enough fresh new sounds on Together to make listeners anticipate each new song.
Gimmicky is a bad word, but it’s at least a little bit accurate. “Valkyrie in the Roller Disco” (how’s that for a potential band name?) comes to mind: a stripped down ballad with banjo that sounds as if it was recorded inside a tin can.
But it works. Not much about the music is different on Together, but it feels energetic enough to excite both new and old listeners about the band. In places, it is mellower than the past. “My Shepherd,” a Neko Case-led ballad, is dangerously close to extra-parent-friendly acts such as Mates of State, but all in all The New Pornographers have done it again.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
waldo@umdbk.com
