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The New Pornographers. New album 'Continue as a Guest' out 3/31! New song "Really Really Light" + music video out now. North America headline tour on sale now. Subscribe 23.9K.
- “The Body Says No”
- “Jackie, Dressed in Cobras”
- “Myriad Harbour”
- “It’s only Divine Right”
- “Mass Romantic”
- “The Laws Have Changed”
- “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk”
- “Sing Me Spanish Techno” –
- “Ballad of A Comeback Kid”
- “Letter from An Occupant”
The full-frontal guitar and synth assault of “The Body Says No” is in many ways typical of the harried atmosphere of Mass Romantic, suggesting something like The Human League on a particularly savage Dexedrine bender. It’s a track that features heart-racing start and stop dynamics, a breathtaking chorus, and cryptic lyrics lamenting both the death ...
There is a kind of illicit thrill in hearing Dan Bejar’s songs rendered through the New Porno’s power pop machinery, a sense that under any other circumstance you might never be able to hear his dyspeptic musings rendered with such assertive agreeability. “Jackie, Dressed In Cobras” is a preeminent example of Bejar’s special genius for character st...
The knowing, comic, and moving centerpiece of the Challengersalbum is a remarkably catchy shorthand view into Bejar’s ambivalence towards a fame he rightfully never expected. Addressing his band mates “Carl and John” over a lilting, slow-moving riff, Bejar confronts both the beauty of a sunset worth waking up for and the nervousness of a group of f...
One of countless New Pornographers tracks that could easily have been a hit single, the wondrous major to minor hook fest “It’s Only Divine Right” manages the neat trick of sounding utterly modern and also like the British Invasion riff circa 1966, complete with harmonies and sentiments apparently beamed directly from the Hollies’ playbook. With it...
The very first and nearly the best New Pornographers song features a swinging, glam-inflected beat, a Beach Boys-style vocal breakdown and most crucially one of the great balls-out vocal performances in recent memory by Neko Case, who beautifully bulldozes her subject matter with all of the sensitivity of a bullet train unconcerned with provincial ...
The New Pornographers have taken an understandable care in remaining non-political — at least explicitly — over time. But listening to 2003’s epic “The Laws Have Changed,” it becomes ever more incredulous to separate rock and roll from real world fact in light of lines like “Sing all hail/What’ll be revealed today/When we peer into the great unknow...
The bouncy and infectious “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk” is a lovely deviation from the standard New Pornographers’ formula. Featuring old-time sixties fanfare that brings to mind the Left Banke, terrific lyrics like, “Won’t wear my Sunday suit to walk that street/That would feel byzantine,” the song could be mistaken for a particularly robust exertion f...
The rollicking, emotionally ambivalent “Sing Me Spanish Techno” is the kind of hard won travelogue that peppers the catalog of many a band accomplished enough to tour the world and still find the experience more uneasy than it is edifying. Echoing the sentiments of Superchunk’s equally great “European Medicine” or the Mats “Can’t Hardly Wait,” this...
It is unclear if Dan Bejar was prescient, flippant or both when he wrote the lines to “Ballad Of A Comeback Kid” in 2003, what with its inferences of tenement living, global despair and an impending third world existence. In some ways he has always been a Cassandra figure, recognizing that “the scions of history/guess another mystery wrong”. At a b...
On a short list of world historic great pop songs — ranging from “Take On Me” to “Hey Ya!” — the New Pornographers managed to place themselves smack in the middle of that strange and wonderful derby with one of the most inescapable tunes ever written. With the Neko-sang, Newman-written “Letter From An Occupant” –- 3 minutes and 46 seconds of unmiti...
- These Are The Fables. from Twin Cinema, 2005. The New Pornographers moved away from power pop on Twin Cinema, adding sophisticated pop/rock to their sound. ‘
- The Laws Have Changed. from The Electric Version, 2003. ‘The Laws Have Changed’ is a great energetic power pop song, one of the band’s best known tracks.
- The Bones Of An Idol. from Twin Cinema, 2005. ‘The Bones of an Idol’ is second track on Twin Cinema; following the upbeat power pop of the opener, it’s more reflective and sophisticated.
- From Blown Speakers. from Electric Version, 2003. ‘From Blown Speakers’ utilises one of my favorite songwriting tricks. There’s a series of verses that build up the tension, while withholding the chorus.
- "The Bleeding Heart Show" Twin Cinema (2005) This one just encapsulates a lot of what we were trying to do in the band, what I was trying to do as a songwriter.
- "Myriad Harbour" Challengers (2007) I could easily pick five Bejar songs for this list, but I'll try not to be too self-deprecating. There is something uniquely loose and fun about this song that makes it stand out — not just from other New Pornographers songs, but from Destroyer as well.
- "This Is the World of the Theatre" Whiteout Conditions (2017) This is a song of ours that I don't think gets enough love. A great Neko lead vocal, and I just love the way it moves.
- "Brill Bruisers" Brill Bruisers (2014) This one feels like the platonic ideal of a New Pornographers track. The first song on my favourite album of ours.
Promise Me J Brothers • Greatest Hits Collection • 2004. Official audio for The New Pornographers' new song "Pontius Pilate's Home Movies” from the new album ‘Continue as a Guest’...
Official audio for The New Pornographers' song "Last And Beautiful” from the new album ‘Continue as a Guest’ out now on Merge Records.
The New Pornographers are a Canadian indie rock band, formed in 1997 in Vancouver. Presented as a musical collective and supergroup [ 1 ] of singer-songwriters and musicians from multiple projects, the band has released nine studio albums to date.
