I admit, I’m a ravenous fan of The New Pornographers so heading into this album I knew it would take a lot to disappointment. But Together does not disappoint, not the diehard fan and, I would suggest, not someone with brand new ears either. If you’ve never listened to The New Pornographers before, perhaps here is a good starting point.
The New Pornographers are an American-Canadian supergroup. With songwriting safely in the hands of Carl Newman (aka A.C. Newman) and Dan Bejar (Destroyer) they’re backed up by the absolutely wonderful vocal chops of Neko Case and Kathryn Calder (Immaculate Machine)—all of them talented instrumentalists as well. With a line-up like this, it’s nearly impossible to produce anything short of musical bliss. And bliss this is.
Together is a kind of musical perfection. It’s equal parts pop and introspective rock. Lyrically, it’s magnificent song writing. The lyrics are charming and thoughtful and pure poetry. Musically, it’s like an explosion. I mean, this band is so tight it’s just an absolute treat to listen to. This is the case with nearly every New Pornographers release and Together is no exception. We’re treated to soaring guitar/synth./drum ensembles and to more stripped-down simple piano and guitar tracks, but all are musically solid. But it isn’t just instrumental proficiency that impresses, The New Pornographers bring that raw talent and ability and craft beautiful pop songs. Together, like previous releases, is packed with incredibly catchy, high-energy pop-minded music. Talented, well-written, danceable musical. And that is a real win.
It amazes me that a band like The New Pornographers can manage to stray very little from their original sound and still craft and create such new and refreshing music. You can shuffle songs between an older album like Twin Cinema all the way up through Challengers and into Together and really notice no incredible difference in the musical styles. This is a good thing, because their style is amazing. It’s also an incredible thing in that they’ve managed do keep doing it all this time and still sound new and fresh and great. It goes to show that a band with a great sound doesn’t have to reinvent themselves in order to keep making good music.
In sum, I love this album. I love The New Pornographers. They have it in all the right places. The combination of their vocalists, their wonderful instrumentation, their pop sensibilities coupled with great song writing just makes it work. Together is another solid album in a long lineage of excellent Canadian music. Bravo.
Neko Case provides backup vocals on Jakob Dylan’s new album Women & Country as well. It’s a great listen!