Album Review: The New Pornographers - Together

It’s easy to analogise Carl Newman’s role in The New Pornographers. He’s the head chef, constantly needing to come up with an interesting menu using the same incongruous ingredients. He’s the circus master, juggling a chainsaw (Bejar), a flaming torch (Case) and a sharpened axe (Calder) whilst taking care of his own skin, tightrope walking above a perilous drop. In truth, his actual role seems so large that it feels like an analogy in itself – the head lyric and song writer and lead singer and guitarist of a band featuring a dishevelled troubadour, a classy country songstress and an angelically voiced family member. The truly astonishing thing about Newman though, is that he’s managed to take all of these threads and weave them into a successful tapestry, not once, not twice but three times only mis-stepping slightly at the fourth time of asking on 2007’s Challengers.

Together begins in familiar territory with ‘Moves’. It sounds like typical New Pornos fare with Newman channelling the spirit of Brian Wilson across a dependably confident melodic swagger, though there’s a sense that we’ve been here before and the track wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Challengers. ‘Crash Years’again feels like we’re wondering down the same slightly worn path, this time sticking to the super up-tempo catchiness of Newman and co’s first two albums, Mass Romantic and Electric Version. This is Together’s weakness and strength. It’s a return to the formula of the first three albums after the more thoughtful and less successful Challengers but returning to this old formula makes the album seem...er...formulaic. Still, when you have a formula this good, why not?

‘Your Hands (Together)’ adds some rock to proceedings with its Eye-of-the-Tiger-like guitar/cymbal crashes. Newman mixes up vocal leads again, this time sharing duties with Case and Calder. It’s Dan Bejar’s turn next with ‘Silver Jenny Dollar’, a pretty much perfect three minute slice of verse chorus verse pop with Bejar’s unmistakable voice stamping charisma all over the hummable chorus.

Newman keeps it in the family for Together’s best moment, with Uncle AC and niece Kathryn Calder mirroring each other on the wonderful ‘Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk’. It’s an apt title as Calder’s sweet vocals go so well with the clean, almost processed sounds of Newman. Finally, Neko Case gets a chance to show off her stunning vocals on ‘My Shepherd’, a track that wouldn’t seem out of place on her recent solo albums. The range and depth of her voice and the more personal, straight lyrics - “If I’m honest, you come to mind but baby I’m not” - make the track another standout.

There are a couple of uncharacteristically weak tracks as the album reaches its conclusion. ‘Valkyrie at the Roller Disco’ is hindered by its slow pace and its placing on the album, while closer ‘We End up Together’ is just one step away from being dull, but these don’t put much of a dent into what is mostly a return to form.