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New Pornographers: A "Singles" Band?

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I mean, they have really really great songs like "Bleeding Heart Show", "Letter From an Occupants", "From Blown Speakers". But in their albums there are always some weak songs/fillers.

From the first albums we have (IMO) "Mystery Hours", "Centre for Holy Wars", "The Mary Martin Shows".

From the third, "The Bones of an Idol", "Use It", "Falling Through Your Clothes", "Three or Four", "Star Bodies".

I can't think of any weak songs on the second album, though. So I think Electric Version is their best (in album context, that is. because nothing on Electric Version could match "Bleeding Heart Show" or "Letter From an Occupant").

I'm not saying that the weak songs are bad songs. I just think that they disrupt the flow of the albums. It makes me want to press the skip button.

I'm still waiting for them to make a great album. Not only great songs. (I'm saying this as their fan).

p.s. does Dan Bejar's voice is exactly like David Bowie or is it just me?

― Aditya (dan138zig), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 23:22 (twenty years ago)

Twin Cinema is their best. As far as vacuum-sealed power-pop with too many referents for its own good, it's as good as it gets. Even Dan Bejar's songs are less arch than usual.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 23:28 (twenty years ago)

no ppl have definitely noted the bejar-bowie comparison, on 'streethawk' esp. electric version was definitely the album i played most without skipping around alot - solid throughout with no huge peaks to make me jump around. the first was good but with more weak patches and obv more standouts. the third did nothing for me really though i heard it 3 times maybe at most.

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 23:31 (twenty years ago)

twin cinema sells the most.

― electro-acoustic lycanthrope (orion), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 23:33 (twenty years ago)

and, are the "new pornographers" members singles?
i know newman has a girlfriend, but what about the others?
who is married? who is not? who got children? who dont?

― cust t, Wednesday, 31 May 2006 23:39 (twenty years ago)

i love use it, i would ff some of the others to get to it. i guess what makes a filler song is a matter of taste. i agree that don't play twin cinemas as a whole album anywhere near as much as electric version and mass romantic though.

― gem (trisk), Thursday, 1 June 2006 00:19 (twenty years ago)

twin cinema brings the hookage!

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 1 June 2006 00:36 (twenty years ago)

I love "Use It" and "Falling Through Your Clothes"! beat that!

also, "Stacked Crooked" is such a phenomenal closer that you could just throw together any dozen random songs, stick it on the end, and make a compelling case that the result is a "great album"

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Thursday, 1 June 2006 01:37 (twenty years ago)

Twin Cinema is pretty amazing from start to finish. I mean, the weakest songs are "Stacked Crooked" and "Bleeding Heart Show," and those songs rule. YOUR THEORY IS SHOT TO PIECES, FRIEND!

Really now, how can you put down "Bones of an Idol"?

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Thursday, 1 June 2006 01:54 (twenty years ago)

-oh, so people have noted bejar-bowie comparison eh? no wonder.

-yeah, electric version is SOLID. that's the word i've been looking for.

-yeah, "stacked crooked" is a good closer. but i prefer "Breakin the Law".

-I think "Bones of an Idol" was put too early on the album. it slows down the album when it's gained momentum with the title track.

― Aditya (dan138zig), Thursday, 1 June 2006 02:25 (twenty years ago)

Well, isn't that why we have shuffle play?

― Awesome (thanks and yes, I am), Thursday, 1 June 2006 02:36 (twenty years ago)

But the most prefered way to listen to music is listening to a whole album from start to finish! Oh, you're soooo MTV.

― Aditya (dan138zig), Thursday, 1 June 2006 04:28 (twenty years ago)

America spreads itself vv thin.

― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 1 June 2006 04:55 (twenty years ago)

BULLSHIT FONGOLOID! Third album is their strongest, suck it.

― Tynan DeLong (TynanTynan!), Thursday, 1 June 2006 05:24 (twenty years ago)

One of the things I love about the NPs is that there is no general agreement on what their strongest/weakest songs are. ("Star Bodies," some days, is my favorite song by them.)

― Douglas (Douglas), Thursday, 1 June 2006 05:34 (twenty years ago)

I could see them being a "singles" band, but more because the albums feel too homogenous to me. I dig what they do, but in doses of 3-4 songs. 10-11 NP songs tends to feel a little fatiguing. I think the fact that the lyrics tend to be sort of random and non-sequitur enhances this feeling.

― Steve Goldberg (Steve Goldberg), Thursday, 1 June 2006 08:50 (twenty years ago)

yeah, listening to a whole NP album sometimes feel fatiguing. maybe I'll make a compilation of their best songs. that would be great listening. any recommendation of the tracks? 15 max.

― Aditya (dan138zig), Thursday, 1 June 2006 09:03 (twenty years ago)

A compilation? Oh, you're soooo MTV.

― Awesome (thanks and yes, I am), Thursday, 1 June 2006 11:11 (twenty years ago)

*shoots myself on the head* *turns into a zombie* *eat people*

― Aditya (dan138zig), Thursday, 1 June 2006 11:38 (twenty years ago)

Matthew:

You really think "The Bleeding Heart Show" is one of the weakest songs on "Twin Cinema"? I think it's the best song on the album. It does start slowly. But I think that slow beginning is needed to build momentum and tension, and at about the 3:00 mark, the song explodes into those great, layered harmonies. And the drumming that bridges the changes in tempo and texture are great.

Anyway, aside from that, I agree that the album is wonderful, and that "Bones of an Idol" is one of the best songs on it. If the New Pornographers were, at one point, a singles-only band, I think "Twin Cinema" put them in a different category.

-- Daniel

― Daniel, Esq., Thursday, 1 June 2006 14:11 (twenty years ago)

Electric Version would be solid if it weren't for "Chump Change", which is an absolute mess in several ways (grating hook, stupid-sounding backing vocals, lyrics -- I don't know exactly what constitutes a "lesbian rage", but the phrase sounds vaguely offensive); the first half of "Ballad Of a Comeback Kid" (aimless, self-important free-association); and the chorus of "The End Of Medicine" (forced rhyme is bad, off-rhyme is bad, using both is worse -- why draw attention to the weakest point in the song?)

Twin Cinema's a great album, really strong in general -- but maybe not any individual songs on the level of e.g. "Letter" or "The Laws Have Changed". At least in my opinion.

I don't know -- I guess I only call "singles band" when a band consistently makes songs I would rather skip than hear (as opposed to sometimes skipping forward to get to a song I really want to hear), and in three albums, "Chump Change" is the only song that's done that for me. Eh. Not that it matters.

― Pessimist (Pessimist), Thursday, 1 June 2006 15:18 (twenty years ago)

I don't know exactly what constitutes a "lesbian rage", but the phrase sounds vaguely offensive

Uh, maybe your lesbian friends have healthier relationships than mine do, but I had a pretty clear picture of what he meant.

― Eppy (Eppy), Thursday, 1 June 2006 15:25 (twenty years ago)

I made a compilation of my favorite NP songs and 90% of them were written by Carl Newman. I loathe most of Bejar's songs, for some reason. Well, not really loathe but very indifferent to.

― kickitcricket (kickitcricket), Thursday, 1 June 2006 15:59 (twenty years ago)

No New Pornographers compilation can be complete without Bowling Green from the first Neko Case album. It's a duet between her and Carl Newman, a cover of the old Everly Brothers song. Absolutely classic.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:05 (twenty years ago)

Oh, I have seen lesbians who were angry. They are a lot like other people who are angry. Maybe I am just associating with the wrong lesbians?

(I certainly hope not. The first Wrong Lesbians album was a sloppy, uninspired attempt at Pavement-worship -- it's amazing they actually recorded it, instead of just playing the songs in front of a cardboard box ironically labeled "Studio Equipment". I don't want anything to do with those guys.)

But I guess I sort of feel that the New Pornographers don't really have lyrics -- that, no matter how many times I have heard (e.g.) "Letter From An Occupant", I still could not sing along even if I had Neko Case's voice (with Newman's range in the upper registers -- I like how they have to have the guy sing the high notes), because those are not lyrics. Recognizable words -- especially recognizable words that I have to parse as boorish/not-boorish, as in this case -- are like poorly-integrated drums; they are going to throw me off every time.

And did I mention the deranged hooting on the backing vocals?

― Pessimist (Pessimist), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:05 (twenty years ago)

um, 90% of their songs are written by Newman in the first place.

xx-post

― erklie (erklie), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:06 (twenty years ago)

I think it's more like 60-70%, but I see your point. Let's put it this way - I think I put one song of Bejar's on the 15 song compilation I made.

― kickitcricket (kickitcricket), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:28 (twenty years ago)

"Chump Change"? That's maybe my favorite song on Electric Version! How could you not like the "Oo Oo Oo Oo Oo"? Well, I guess Douglas was right:

[quote]One of the things I love about the NPs is that there is no general agreement on what their strongest/weakest songs are. ("Star Bodies," some days, is my favorite song by them.)

-- Douglas (ilxo...), June 1st, 2006.[/quote]

― Aditya (dan138zig), Thursday, 1 June 2006 21:25 (twenty years ago)

my three favourite songs are on Twin Cinema - Sing Me Spanish Techno, Bleeding Heart Show, Jackie Dressed In Cobras - but it is an uneven album, I think.

― derrick (derrick), Friday, 2 June 2006 02:27 (twenty years ago)

I love "Chump Change".
"And flew into a lesbian rage" is my favorite lyric on the entire record.

― Marmotdeth (marmotwolof), Friday, 2 June 2006 02:34 (twenty years ago)

Yup, Twin Cinema is uneven. Just like other NP albums (with a slight exception for Electric Version). Streets of Fire is underrated, IMO.

― Aditya (dan138zig), Friday, 2 June 2006 07:42 (twenty years ago)

Electric Version is definitely their best work. As hard as I tried, I can't even begin to listen to Twin Cinemas. I think seeing a Neko-less New Pornos show kind of mind-blocked me.

― Cameron (raygun), Friday, 2 June 2006 20:18 (twenty years ago)

World Cafe.

― astronautagogo (astronautagogo), Saturday, 3 June 2006 22:09 (twenty years ago)

Yes, definitly a Singles band.

[URL=http://img357.imageshack.us/my.php?image=singles7hv.jpg][IMG]http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/9770/singles7hv.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

― astronautagogo (astronautagogo), Saturday, 3 June 2006 22:20 (twenty years ago)

How do you love one NP record but hate another? Their sound hasn't changed from the first record. Songwriting has remained remarkably consistent too.

All three are great. They're making a case to go down as one of the two or three best bands of the 2000s.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Saturday, 3 June 2006 22:56 (twenty years ago)


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