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It seems self-evident that if you put a bunch of talented musicians together, they will come up with great music–just as it appears no less obvious that all you need to do to win football matches is put talented players on the park and let them get on with it. However, just as a team of overpaid athletes will occasionally get turned over by a lesser but better-drilled outfit, so the efforts of putative musical supergroups are often scuppered by ill discipline and a degree of vainglory. The New Pornographers' fifth studio album, Together, is–to pursue a metaphor to exhaustion–something like watching a lengthy, impressive and pretty succession of passes that rarely lends the impression that anybody is going to score.
The Vancouver-based octet is gathered around Canadian solo artist AC Newman (who writes nine of the 12 songs here) and Destroyer frontman Dan Bejar (who contributes the other three). The best-known other member of the band is justly adored chanteuse Neko Case, whose vocals grace several of the highlights of this ungainly but intermittently inspired album. As if they and their five accomplices weren't sufficient, they are joined for Together by an array of guests including Beirut's Zach Condon and Okkervil River's Will Sheff.
All things considered, it's unsurprising that so much of Together evokes the taste of soup which has been deliberated over by a surfeit of chefs. In small measures it's great fun–especially the gleeful stadium glam of Your Hands (Together), the breezy country trundle of Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk and the svelte indie lament of If You Can't See My Mirrors. Elsewhere, however, far too many potentially good ideas are occluded by clamorous over-elaboration. Valkyrie in the Roller Disco would have been fine as a sparse piano lament in the fashion of Big Star's Holocaust: the fussy backing harmonies and the gradually introduced band overwhelm it completely.
Closing track We End Up Together simply doesn't have the melodic strength to support its orchestral backing. Like much of Together, it aims for The Beatles, hits ELO, and sounds like the people responsible mightn't have thought that was a bad thing. --Andrew Mueller
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Canadian band The New Pornographers seem like a
relatively respectable ensemble to me (their
prurient title notwithstanding!) Moreover they
write some really cracking pop songs and their new
album 'Together' delivers a round dozen of them.
With a solid decade's worth of good work behind them their
intelligence and imagination would appear to be undiminished.
Employing a little additional help from some talented outsiders
(including : Zach Condon/trumpet; Dap Kings brass musos
Neal Sugarman, Dave Guy and Cochemea Gastelum; Okkervil River's
Will Sheff and the wonderful Annie (St Vincent) Clark) they make a
very special kind of noise indeed.
The songs are spectacularly well-crafted;
the arrangements richly conceived and the
performances consummately realised.
A.C. Newman, Neko Case and Kathryn Calder are all
fine singers and both singly and together they
contribute a wide range of subtle vocal colours
across the length and breadth of the collection.
Highlights include opening track 'Moves', an elegant
stomping and strutting composition studded with
glistening incidental strings from Tara Szczygielski
and Ben Kalb.
'Crash Years' has got some splendid whistling running
through it (I've always been one for a good whistle!)
as well as a strong and memorable central melody.
'Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk' is the best of the bunch for
my money. A delightful staccato construction, punctuated
with fairground organ decorations and a outstandingly
joyful tune and harmonies. A good old-fashioned toe-tapper!
For sheer unaffected prettiness 'My Shepherd' takes a lot of
beating (and there is more than enough room in this wild and
weary world for just a little bit of unaffected prettiness).
'Valkyrie In The Roller Disco' gets my vote for silly song
title of the year so-far. It is also an utterly enchanting
and strangely surreal song which comes and goes like a dream.
You can sort-of dance to 'A Bite Out Of My Bed' (again with the
silly titles!) in the same way in which one might have moved to
some of Dexys Midnight Runners finer confections once upon a very
long time ago. The bones are tired but the spirit is still willing!
Final track 'We End Up Together' brings the project to a whimsical
but strangely affecting conclusion. A truly marvellous finale in fact.
'Together' is, in many ways, the musical equivalent of a fine wine.
Lay it down for a decade and I feel quite certain that I would be just
as happy in its company as I am tonight. An album to sip and savour.
Highly Recommended.
relatively respectable ensemble to me (their
prurient title notwithstanding!) Moreover they
write some really cracking pop songs and their new
album 'Together' delivers a round dozen of them.
With a solid decade's worth of good work behind them their
intelligence and imagination would appear to be undiminished.
Employing a little additional help from some talented outsiders
(including : Zach Condon/trumpet; Dap Kings brass musos
Neal Sugarman, Dave Guy and Cochemea Gastelum; Okkervil River's
Will Sheff and the wonderful Annie (St Vincent) Clark) they make a
very special kind of noise indeed.
The songs are spectacularly well-crafted;
the arrangements richly conceived and the
performances consummately realised.
A.C. Newman, Neko Case and Kathryn Calder are all
fine singers and both singly and together they
contribute a wide range of subtle vocal colours
across the length and breadth of the collection.
Highlights include opening track 'Moves', an elegant
stomping and strutting composition studded with
glistening incidental strings from Tara Szczygielski
and Ben Kalb.
'Crash Years' has got some splendid whistling running
through it (I've always been one for a good whistle!)
as well as a strong and memorable central melody.
'Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk' is the best of the bunch for
my money. A delightful staccato construction, punctuated
with fairground organ decorations and a outstandingly
joyful tune and harmonies. A good old-fashioned toe-tapper!
For sheer unaffected prettiness 'My Shepherd' takes a lot of
beating (and there is more than enough room in this wild and
weary world for just a little bit of unaffected prettiness).
'Valkyrie In The Roller Disco' gets my vote for silly song
title of the year so-far. It is also an utterly enchanting
and strangely surreal song which comes and goes like a dream.
You can sort-of dance to 'A Bite Out Of My Bed' (again with the
silly titles!) in the same way in which one might have moved to
some of Dexys Midnight Runners finer confections once upon a very
long time ago. The bones are tired but the spirit is still willing!
Final track 'We End Up Together' brings the project to a whimsical
but strangely affecting conclusion. A truly marvellous finale in fact.
'Together' is, in many ways, the musical equivalent of a fine wine.
Lay it down for a decade and I feel quite certain that I would be just
as happy in its company as I am tonight. An album to sip and savour.
Highly Recommended.
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
A supergroup in every sense of the word, The New Pornographers latest release, 'Together', is their most impressive and diverse record yet. The album is underpinned by A.C. Newman's superb songwriting, with his honest sentiment, moving lyricy and a knack for curious images set amidst the driving, mid-tempo guitar that made Newman's solo records 'The Slow Wonder' and 'Get Guilty' so listenable. The rest of the band aren't too bad, either. Neko Case's gorgeous harmonies, Kathryn Calder's pure vocals and Dan Bejar's (aka Destroyer) chugging, varied rhythms all feature prominently. Both musically virtuouso and with a knack for great melodies, the New Pornos have produced some of their best music yet, on 'Together'. Opener 'Moves' is a riff-driven guitar rocker with a catchy refrain, 'My Shepherd' (in my opinion, the album's highlight) a moving, rocky ballad, and the later, poppier tracks, with their synths and laid-back melodies, such as 'Valkyrie at the Roller Disco' and 'A Bite Out of My Bed' work as an excellent counterpoint to the album's heavier and more emotional offerings.
Though 'Together' is one of the best indie pop/rock albums of the last few years, it admittedly has one or two missteps. Whilst too many cooks don't seem to spoil the album's broth, there are one or two attempts at musical styles which don't come off. The girl-group backing vocals of 'Silver Jenny Dollar' and the antequated British-style folk of the Bejar-penned 'Daughters of Sorrow' being the prime examples. On the whole, though, 'Together' is a wonderful album, which brings welcome touches of alt-country, synth-pop and guitar-driven rock to an already very accomplished indie sound.
Though 'Together' is one of the best indie pop/rock albums of the last few years, it admittedly has one or two missteps. Whilst too many cooks don't seem to spoil the album's broth, there are one or two attempts at musical styles which don't come off. The girl-group backing vocals of 'Silver Jenny Dollar' and the antequated British-style folk of the Bejar-penned 'Daughters of Sorrow' being the prime examples. On the whole, though, 'Together' is a wonderful album, which brings welcome touches of alt-country, synth-pop and guitar-driven rock to an already very accomplished indie sound.
Format:Audio CD
I think it's now a recognised phenomenon that every New Pornographers record contains a couple of tracks that wrap you in a warm hug and don't let go and a crowd of others that stand, looking at you suspiciously, from the sidelines. Give those others time, though, and they blossom into miniature masterpieces. Great album. Takes a couple of listens but just keeps getting better.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Sweet Talk Sweet Talk
12 perfect soft-rock-pop-folk songs. This is an excellent album, with some extremely catchy tunes, very addictive to listen to :) E
Published 9 months ago by Iain Hudson
A one song wonder.
Sadly "Crash Years" is the only track that is of any significance. It stands alone in a mire of mediocrity.
Published 15 months ago by Mr. Nhj Barnes
Great Powerpop
Bombastic powerpop, great songs by the fantastic Neko Case, her voice alone is makes the whole album a must buy.
Published 23 months ago by Rain
Like it.
I'm well past comparing their releases, so I won't do that.
Having listened to this quite a few times this week, I've enjoyed it from start to finish. Read more
Having listened to this quite a few times this week, I've enjoyed it from start to finish. Read more
Published on 1 May 2010 by Yukijin
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