Carl Padley

I’ll be honest off the bat. I’ve never heard Mass Romantic or Electric Version, and the only reason I came across the New Pornographers years ago was that a Canadian super group search pointed me towards these instead of (the fantastic) Broken Social Scene. Since then, however, I had the chance to listen to the phenomenal slice of sunburst that was Carl Newman’s debut, The Slow Wonder, and so to find out he fronted this collective was a nice surprise to say the least.

The genius of Carl Newman’s debut was the way the melodies sounded like quality pop chunks, but didn’t reveal all of their shades straight away and annoyed you on the second listen (I’m looking at you, Research). The same can be said for this album, as it was probably only on my sixth listen that the muzzle bass-line of Use It smacked me up-side my head, the two note volley of Twin Cinema suddenly became essential and Sing Me Spanish Techno had me wondering if techno could be all that bad when a song about it is this good?

The album’s real crunch, however, is The Bleeding Heart Show (great title, guys).

It starts off innocently enough, with slight guitar strums alternating between two minor chords and Newman tossing off nonsense, although tongue-rolling, couplets such as “Our Golden Handshake has been smashed into this shape/It’s taken magic to a primitive new place”. However, the awesome Neko Case joins him on the pre-chorus, adding a little vocal flair by singing in a major key over his minor. The song gradually builds up in instrumentation, especially percussion wise, until Newman delivers a final line on his own, signaling the flood-gates to open.

Remember the coda of God Only Knows?

Whoa, settle down! Before you start bombarding me with hate mail and proclaiming Pet Sounds as “ThE GraateST ALB EVER!!1!1”, let me say it’s not on par with God Only Knows, although in terms of vocal skill (again, the glorious Neko Case) and actual FEELING, it comes damn close, and is the best use of an African chant since Disney made me shed a tear over the Lion King back in ’97.

Don’t get me wrong though, this is NOT an album built around one song.

Great artists always know to save a corker for the final song (Radiohead have seem to developed the perfect formula), and “Stacked Crooked” features the best analogue beat since the Postal Service dropped “Such Great Heights” two years ago.

Dan Bejar, of Destroyer fame, contributes three songs here, and two are striking (“Broken Beads” seems like a poor re-tread of the title track, and the “la la” chorus frankly grates). However, “Jackie’s Dressed In Cobra’s” post-chorus sounds like a piano falling down the stairs, and is all the better for it, whereas try humming “Streets of Fire” when you’re walking down the street, and your day will be all the better for it.

Obviously, no album deserves a 10 (oh, controversy!), as we’d be listening to it non-stop, so onto the problems. The lyrics are nice enough, mostly concerning labors of love, but nothing really grips you and forces you to think (damn you Sufjan Stevens, way to set the fucking bar). Additionally, the album dips slightly between tracks ten and twelve, and a three track dip isn’t so easily forgivable.

Nevertheless, this doesn’t detract from what is a gem of a pop album that doesn’t make the mistake of adding so much without going into overkill. Consequently, after listening to this record, I went and tracked down every member who had a solo career going for them and bought their LP’s without a moment’s hesitation, and honestly, what could be higher praise than that?

Rating:

9/10

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