While the rest of the girls go bad: 6 out-of-character New Pornographers moments
Some pleasant inconsistencies from one of indie rock's most doggedly consistent acts
Jason Creps
The New Pornographers have exposed only one major flaw over the course of their five albums: They're too consistent. As of this year's Together, the Vancouver-founded band's multi-hook, massively layered power-pop songs are still exploring the intricate variety within the range main songwriter Carl Newman established on 2000's debut Mass Romantic and 2002's Electric Version. That's not to say nothing ever changed between Mass Romantic's blazing title track and the contemplative "Adventures In Solitude" (on 2007's Challengers), just that neither the New Pornos nor fans seem anxious to break the character of pop's genial smartasses. That has made the surprises—especially on 2005's Twin Cinema, their most eclectic album to date—all the more pronounced. Ahead of the band's August 4 show at the Orpheum Theatre, The A.V. Club listened back through the Pornos' discography to find the songs that take the most chances.
"The Bleeding Heart Show"
Newman's somber first verse on "The Bleeding Heart Show" offered the first hint that Twin Cinema would shake up the Mass Romantic-Electric Version formula. It's also the Pornos' first great sad song. Newman's lyrics, though cryptic as ever, begin the song on a clear note of desperation: "It looked as if I picked your name out of a hat / Next thing you know, you are asleep in someone's lap." The song digs an aching pit in the stomach and then slowly fills it in, first with Kurt Dahle's drums and next with one of the Pornos' richest Neko Case-on-Newman-on-the-whole-damn-bunch stack of vocal harmonies. Just as the cries of "hey-la, hey-la!" fade out, the song drops back to a minor finish, leaving behind a warm-and-cold uncertainty that still feels brave coming from such a tightly wound outfit.
Only once has a Dan Bejar-led song out-rocked just about everything else on a New Pornos album. Twin Cinema's "Jackie, Dressed In Cobras" suggests the magic of collaboration beating his occasional long-windedness into quick-striking shape, thanks to a concise, ringing guitar hook and Bejar's images of “a train devouring the land.” It's as catchy as most New Pornos' songs, yet the piano-guitar hook of the chorus feels like it was bashed out in a drunken whirl, rather than fussed over in demo after demo. Bejar's just as verbose as Newman (for confirmation, just cue up any Destroyer track), but here he takes the Pornos as close as they've ever been to a traditional rock song.
Newman and Case seem pretty adamant that New Pornos songs give the alt-country siren a vacation from the caverns of eerie solo masterpieces like "Star Witness." (After all, her greatest New Pornos moment finds Case roaring "for the love of a-God, you said..." on the lovably snide "Letter From An Occupant.") If not for the synths in the background, Challengers' “Go Places” (which Newman wrote) could almost slip its way onto Case's Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. The chorus—“come with me, go places”—reads like an invitation on paper, but she makes the line hang ambivalently in the air, as if implying the person she's singing to has never gotten off his or her ass, or that she's not at all certain herself of which places she means. Case always makes the New Pornos songs she sings lead on her own, but on this one she commits grand, seductive theft.
It's easy to argue that there are too many hooks on some of Newman's tracks, but not that said hooks are too long. The big one on Challengers' "All The Old Showstoppers" helps itself to a whole mini-suite, wedging in backing from cello, bells, horns, and bombastic drum patterns between verses. Instead of wearing out its welcome, that “Oh, here comes yet another bar of this!” quality makes for a nifty contrast with the relatively easy-to-hum melodies all over the rest of the song.
"It's Only Divine Right"
Partly because nobody ever knows what the hell Newman is talking about, New Pornos' songs generally let listeners take them however they will: Perhaps a touch jolly, or a bit cynical or bittersweet, not too overtly one way or the other. From the title to the power-chord lunge of the verses, though, Electric Version's "It's Only Divine Right" pretty much insists on being heard as a dagger of sarcasm aimed at the privileged. That goes double for lyrics like "Face down in the old money / Left the crowd wondering what your next move's gonna be in the moments ahead / While the rest of the girls go bad." Coupled with the sharp little guitar-screams on the bridge and outro, that lyrical sentiment makes "It's Only Divine Right" the Pornos song that most borrows the sting of a simple punk-rock tune.
After the slight shake-up of Twin Cinema, the sound of Challengers and Together indicates that the Pornos wouldn't mind settling into something more polished and orchestrated for a while. The one danger there is that people might take for granted how deftly Newman and his six bandmates corral themselves into coherent arrangements. "We End Up Together" reminds listeners of their luck by steadily progressing through much of the Pornos' dynamic range—and then some. Newman and his acoustic guitar open the song, sounding like a home cassette recording. But by the time remarkably brash strings, drums, and harmonized bursts of "ma-ma-ma-ma!" bounce off against Newman's refrain of "we end up together," the song manages to sound giant and lonesome all at once.
