On the release day of their fourth album of the decade, we're once again reminded of the sheer pop brilliance of the New Pornographers. The Vancouver-based Canadian supergroup released Challengers today on Matador and it's yet another wonderful set of easy/complex, sad/happy tunes from A.C. Newman, Dan "Destroyer" Bejar, Neko Case, and the gang. Whether it's the more classic pop angle of Newman's songs or the obtuse weirdness (in a good way) of Bejar, from where I sit the band rarely fails to satisfy. The latest is perhaps a bit more subdued than its predecessors (Newman's a married man now, after all), but what Challengers forsakes in power-pop, it more than makes up for in transcendent moments like Case's vocal turn on the title track, the return of Bejar's eccentric narrator, and the vocal debut of Kathryn Calder on "Failsafe," and the stunning "Adventures in Solitude." All of this is well and good, of course, but it becomes downright remarkable when one considers that with this release the New Pornographer family can lay reasonable claim to no less than five of the very best ten releases of the past three years (for those of you who care to get into such asides, this also includes A.C. Newman's The Slow Wonder, Destroyer's Rubies, Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, and the NewPo's previous effort, Twin Cinema). The band plays the Crystal Ballroom in Portland with Lavender Diamond on September 16th. Here's hoping Neko makes the trip. MP3s: New Pornographers, from Challengers-
"Myriad Harbour" and "My Rights Versus Yours"

Posted by jpetersen on Tuesday, August 21 at 5:06pm