The New Pornographers - Challengers
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Category: Music CD
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CD Details
Artist: The New PornographersEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-08-21
Music Label: Matador Records
Soundtracks:
- My Rights Versus Yours
- All The Old Showstoppers
- Challengers
- Myriad Harbour
- All The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth
- Failsafe
- Unguided
- Entering White Cecilia
- Go Places
- Mutiny, I Promise You
- Adventures In Solitude
- Spirit Of Giving, The
Music reviews of Challengers
Music Review: Subtle and sometimes vague, but gorgeous none the less
Rating: 4 Stars
This album is quite a bit more subtle than the previous and brillant effort Twin Cinema. The peaks and valleys on Challengers aren't as pronounced nor are the songs as immediately grabbing. This album needs and rewards repeated listenings for its unique charms to become apparent. Its not an album that's going to get you punching your fists in the air while singing along. Challengers is more mellow sounding than NP's previous efforts, more atmospheric perhaps? And that is a problem. With music as laid back as that of Challengers I need more lyrically in order to hang onto the emotion of the songs. As it is sometimes I have to force myself to pay attention. If these guys and gals wrote lyrics as well as they write music they'd be a much more powerful band and Challengers would be a much more powerful recording. As it is for example I can groove along to Neko Case's almost Sandy Dennyisms in the title song but had the lyrics been less obscure I'd be a lot more connected to the song. This lyrical vagueness plagues all their recordings but in the past the muscularity of the music made up for this particular shortcoming. Still this album is worth getting for its occasional brilliant and wonderfully emotive sections. The Neko Case sung Go Places or Dan Bejar's Myriad Harbor for example. The melodies are occasionally gorgeous, as is the instrumentation. Overall the positive aspects outweigh the negative. Its far from their best effort, but is a unique entry in their impressive discography. Don't let the absolutely horrible cover art stop you, Challengers is worth picking up.
BTW what were they thinking with that foul cover? The colors are horrible, the design is just awful, the typography, every aspect of it is almost offensive to the eye. Its as perfect example of what not to do when creating cd cover art as is possible. Worst cover of the decade.
Description of Challengers
Pay no attention to the reviews that imply the New Pornographers have "grown up" or "matured" or "drifted away" from the perfect-pop promise of their first three records. For if you throw darts at the songs on Challengers, an ambitious soundscape that had members of the all-star Canadian band recording their parts all over North America, you'll hit one flawless song after another. "All The Old Showstoppers," "All the Things That Go to Make Heaven and Earth," and "Mutiny, I Promise You" (with its driving Farfisa organ) all venture back to the infectiousness of the band's earlier records, with leader and chief songwriter A.C. Newman (now a Brooklyn native) penning some of the most thought-provoking lyrics this side of Billy Bragg. Yes, there are departures, including a string section, flute and harp, and Dan Bejar's foray into indie-pop hip-hop with the witty, New York-heavy "Myriad Harbour." But there's also Neko Case dominating the divine title track and equally charming "Go Places"" as only she can, Kathryn Calder making her lead-vocal debut on "Failsafe" and (with Newman) on the melancholy "Adventures in Solitude," and Newman using an ambitious six and a half minutes to write about his new home city ("Unguided"). Then, your 50 minutes--a dozen songs--are up, as is the conclusion: Grown up? Sure. Matured? OK. Still pop perfect? Utterly. --Scott HolterMore from the New Pornographers and Friends
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