In the liner notes of
\nMass Romantic<\/i>, the first full-length album by Canadian
\nsupergroup The New Pornographers, the band acknowledged that the
\nalbum was recorded over an extended period of time, in creative
\nbursts. Twelve creative bursts, to be precise.<\/p>\n
Thanks to the exposure of Neko Case (still basically ignored by
\nmainstream, but worshipped by music geeks), The New Pornographers
\nhave been getting attention by mainstream music media. There’s
\nnothing particularly new about
\nMass Romantic<\/i>; most of the music is reminiscent of 80s
\nalterna-power pop bands like The Replacements and the Cars, or 90s
\nBrit-pop. Even if originality isn’t the band’s strongest suit,
\ntheir energy and tight execution more than makes up for the lack of
\nnew ideas.<\/p>\n
The lyrics of
\nMass Romantic<\/i> were written by Dan Bejar and Carl Newman.
\nBoth Bejar and Newman have a keen knack for writing depressing
\nlyrics (see “Execution Day” or “Letter From an Occupant”) and
\nsurrounding them with candy-coated pop arrangements. Call it martyr
\npop. The best example of this is “The Slow Descent Into
\nAlcoholism,” a song that will defy you to want to go out and invest
\nin a pogo stick. The song is deceptively simple and happy-sounding
\nuntil you hear Newman’s scream “Salvation, holdout central” for
\nabout a dozen times. It’s an anthem that deserves to be mentioned
\nin the same sentence as Oasis’ “Cigarettes and Alcohol” for “best
\nsong about debauchery in the past 20 years.”<\/p>\n
Some songs are a tad too familiar for their own good. “The Body
\nSays No” is supposed to be sly and witty, but sounds precociously
\nclose to Styx. The lyrics to “Mystery Hours” and “The Mary Martin
\nShow” seem to be too intelligent for their own good and sometimes,
\nwhen the band veers away from the discipline pop structure, they
\nbuckle under their own ambitions.<\/p>\n
Even with some tarnished songs,
\nMass Romantic<\/i> more than merits a purchase. Like Soundgarden,
\nthe New Pornographers realized that the key to making an old
\nformula sound fresh is not by trying to wildly reinvent genres, but
\nto focus on three elements to making great tunes: dynamics,
\ndynamics, dynamics. Even if you have heard the type of music that
\nthe Pornographers have played, it’s nearly impossible to resist the
\nurge to air-drum during the rousing climax of “To Wild Homes.”<\/p>\n
Fans of Neko Case’s solo work may be in for a shock at the first
\nlisten of
\nMass Romantic<\/i>. With the exception of “Letter From an
\nOccupant,” her vocals basically are reserved for background duties.
\nBe patient though — after a few listens, the music of
\nMass Romantic<\/i> is so infectious, you won’t care if she isn’t
\ntaking center stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6944],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37772","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-new-pornographers","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37772"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}