The New Pornographers

I’m not sure if I was brave or foolish, but I listened to the entire discography of The New Pornographers in one week, actually in five days. I didn’t go insane and enjoyed revisiting some albums I hadn’t heard recently. I had this notion that I would write down thoughts, inclinations and assorted comments sifted from the internet and my noggin as I listened to each album. That didn’t happen, at least not in any meaningful or helpful way. I jotted down some notes as I listened to the first two albums and then quit. There were so many notes and comments that I would have written a short book rather than the short format I employ in my blogs. In a truncated style, here are some of my takeaways from this music marathon. A.C. Newman and Destroyer frontman Dan Bejar wrote all the songs on the album. Lead vocals were mainly by A.C. Newman and Neko Case. The New Pornographers’ membership has ebbed and flowed over the years and album to album, with Neko Case, A.C. Newman, Dan Bejar, and Kathryn Calder as more or less consistent members. The New Pornographers are often called a Canadian supergroup; as a Canadian, I am OK with that assessment; even if Neko Case isn’t a Canadian, she should be.

Mass Romantic

Wikipedia tells us that Mass Romantic was written over the three years prior to its release on November 21, 2000. Standout samples for me started with track one, appropriately, and blended into track two, then three and all the way to twelve.

“In the streetlight dawn

This beat turns on.”

In “Way Back Machine,” Sonny & Cher sang “The Beat Goes On.”

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, drummer of Le Figaro. 😉

The Beatles sang that they “read the news today” & “the news was rather sad.”

The New Pornographers “wrote the news today” and then “Make headlines.”

Living in the modern era of social media, we have come to accept that “fake news” is the new normal, especially when Trump is proclaiming it. The New Pornographers wrote a song that goes from “make headlines” to “fake headlines.” They recorded Mass Romantic well before the era of Trump’s fake news nonsense.

Several more comments in my jotted notes have penmanship that make them all but indecipherable. So I won’t mention The Who seeing for miles and miles while The New Pornographers “claim to see for miles, you don’t, but I believe you do.” I have no idea what is going on there.

And I won’t mention that The Mary Martin Show ignited some random synapses in my brain that brought to mind Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, a television parody show. Go figure, eh?

“Breakin’ the Law” closes the album Mass Romantic with a cornucopia of delightful music.

Mass Romantic must be one of the greatest debut albums. I asked the internet, and it appeared on a few lists, including Paste magazine, which I consider a legit music source, and The Village Voice, which is equally legit.

The New Pornographers‘ first four albums placed in the top 40 on The Village Voice‘s Pazz & Jop year-end poll of hundreds of music reviewers. From 2000 to 2006, either a New Pornographers’ album or a solo album from one of the band’s members ranked in the top 40 on the list each year. In 2007, Blender magazine ranked the New Pornographers’ first album, Mass Romantic, the 24th best indie album ever. In 2009, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the band’s second studio album, Electric Version, No. 79 in the “100 Best Albums of the Decade”. Stereogum has retrospectively praised the band’s debut album, Mass Romantic, as “one of the greatest” power pop albums. I agree.

See what I meant by writing a short book instead of a short blog? What we have here is the edited short version of the notes.

Their sophomore album is Electric Version. I lay awake at night, wondering where the acoustic version is.

On Electric Version, we have From Blown Speakers. That is a great song title; I didn’t drive my speakers that high, but I once worked with a guy who turned the volume so high it vibrated the speaker cabinet off the shelf and crashed to the floor. I had made the shelf and put the speaker on it with no expectation that anyone would listen to music that loud. He did.

New Face of Zero and One was a standout track for me. It’s Only Divine Right is a driving rock number. July Jonesreminded me of Danielson Famile. Why? I don’t know. It just does.

As a whole, the Electric Version sounds like The New Pornographers but dressed up a bit more posh. They are learning as they go, and it sounds good. It’s a more mature sound, fuller somehow.

Track 7 on Brill Bruisers is Another Drug Deal of the Heart with the line “Don’t meet me here

Just meet me out on that corner stop.”

In my mind, it jumped to “Just Walk On By.”

“Just walk on by, wait on the corner

I love you, but we’re strangers when we meet.”

written by Kendall Hayes and performed by American country music artist Leroy Van Dyke. Everyone and their children have subsequently recorded covers of it.

Here are some condensed takeaway thoughts from listening to the discography of The New Pornographs from Mass Romantic to Continue as a Guest. They retained their overall sound but matured and polished their skills as they moved from album to album.

Mass Romantic, their debut album, stuck with me, which is incredible considering the fact that I listened to all eight of their records after Mass Romantic in chronological order. It isn’t amazing when I reconsider the album; it has always been a highlight favourite of mine. Their sophomore release, Electric Version, is a solid album that proves that Mass Romantic wasn’t a one-off. Twin Cinema, their third release, didn’t stick like glue; it was more like bubble gum. The song “Sing Me Spanish Techno” is a good un. I’ll always hold the album Together in a special place because that was the first time I saw them live. I scored a t-shirt, a poster and a CD from the show.

The Together record is a solid listen, with a couple of tracks that stood out to me, such as Crash Years and Silver Jenny Dollar. Brill Bruisers was gifted to me, which means it will stick with me forever. It is also a good listen for a bonus, and I love the cover art. Whiteout Conditions features Katherine Calder on vocals and harmony. Their last two albums, In The Morse Code of Brake Lights and Continue as a Guest, are good, but one of us is missing something. I will have to listen to them again. The fact that I had listened to all of their albums released up to these two in five days may have coloured my vision. Final comment? It was a good five days of good music; I wonder what will be next in my odyssey through my album library from Eh to Zed.

It was purely coincidental that I listened to this band in the week after their drummer, Joe Seiders, was arrested for possession of child pornography. The band cut all ties to him, and I imagine fans like myself will also distance themselves from him.

The name of the band, New Pornographers, has nothing to do with pornography. The New Pornographers‘ name was chosen by Carl Newman, who said that he came up with it because he was a fan of a Japanese film called The Pornographers. It was also an homage to The New Seekers and “The Pornographers,” a track on bandmate Dan Bejar‘s first Destroyer album, We’ll Build Them a Golden Bridge. My son, Joel Weatherly, and I have seen the New Pornographs live several times and Destroyer once, and it was intense.

April 1-7 2025

Posted on April 7, 2025 by normanweatheredmusic

Isolated Youth miserere mei

This band and their album are new to me, courtesy of Bark PR. I’ve given this album easily a half-dozen listens, and I want more. Addictive? Perhaps. It’s definitely music that I want to hear again and again. They churn out distortion-fueled post-punk that charges out of the speakers and assailes my ears. It is not dark, moody music. No, no! They serve the music up raw and gritty with lyrics that touch on faith and the search for meaning in life. Who isn’t?

From the press handout:

“Hailing from the remote coastal town of Norrtälje, Sweden. Isolated Youth’s debut LP is deeply shaped by the atmospheric Nordic landscape they grew up in. From the icy hooks of ‘Ghost Town’ inspired by the desolate streets of Stockholm to the ghostly ‘Psykosoma’, conceived in a studio nestled between a forested graveyard, the band channel the play of light and darkness of their region through a gothic, distortion-fueled lens. Formed by brothers Axel and William Mardberg, along with drummer Andreas Geidemark and bassist Elmer Hallsby, the band channels a raw and atmospheric style that draws influence from icons like The Chameleons, The Gun Club, and Siouxsie & The Banshees. With Axel’s piercing falsetto and William’s intricate, Johnny Marr-esque guitar lines, Isolated Youth have crafted an album that feels both nostalgic and deeply contemporary.”

The song Love Locked In A Dark Room mesmerizes me. It has a jaunty rhythm that reminds me of someone but sounds fresh and original at the same time. It has crashing cymbals and chugging guitars that melt into the lyrics that cry out in longing not to be left alone in a dark room like a bird in a cage. As I listened to this song and meditated on the lyrics, I was reminded of a poem by Maya Angelou, Caged Bird.

Love Locked In A Dark Room:

“Hold me

Before the sun hits and the walls they turn

The dark room is bending

Bird in a cage

Dancing in the Devil’s lair

Love locked in a dark room

I can’t see where I stay.”

Maya Angelou, Caged Bird:

“The caged bird sings

with a fearful trill

of things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill

for the caged bird

sings of freedom.”

I would love to hear Isolated Youth perform Love Locked In A Dark Room live. I may be in Sweden, their home and native land, in October. They don’t have any tour dates on their web page, but I remain optimistic. In conclusion, I rate this album as a 5 out of 5. It is a well-crafted musical experience with powerful music and insightful thought-provoking lyrics.

DISCOVER ISOLATED YOUTH

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For all press enquiries, please contact james@barkpr.co.uk or Charlotte@barkpr.co.uk

miserere mei is available via Memorials of Distinction and Birthday Productions

Joe Jackson Stepping Out

I hadn’t listened to the music of Joe Jackson other than competing with road noise on the radio back in the days when listening to the radio was a thing. I popped this in the big stereo, sat back in my recliner, closed my eyes and let the music come to me. What I heard was a side of Joe Jackson that I didn’t know existed up to that moment. I could hear sumptuous bass underscoring the songs, powerful but understated. It starts on the first track, Is She Really Going Out With Him? The bass is the bedrock on which the rest of the song is built. I won’t do a long track-by-track review of Joe Jackson’s greatest songs. This listening session gave me another side of Joe Jackson I never knew. I’m listening to it again, focusing more on the vocals and the lyrical content.

Modest Mussorgsky Pictures At An Exhibition

From Wikipedia:

“Pictures at an Exhibition is a piano suite in ten movements, plus a recurring and varied Promenade theme, written in 1874 by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. It is a musical depiction of a tour of an exhibition of works by architect and painter Viktor Hartmann put on at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg following his sudden death in the previous year. Each movement of the suite is based on an individual work, some of which are lost.

The composition has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists, and became widely known from orchestrations and arrangements produced by other composers and contemporary musicians, with Maurice Ravel’s 1922 adaptation for orchestra being the most recorded and performed. The suite, particularly the final movement, “The Bogatyr Gates,” is widely considered one of Mussorgsky’s greatest works.”

Pictures at an Exhibition is easily my favourite classical music album, CD or record. It is a good bit of easy listening for winding down from some business. It is also a favourite of mine for what I call intentional or focused listening. I sit back with no distractions and just listen. I pay attention to different aspects of the music every time I listen to it. I listen to what instruments are used. What is the pacing of the music? Is it going faster? Slower? Escalating or depressing? And other aspects of the album. Yeah, Pictures at an Exhibition is my go-to for classical music.

January 20, 2025

Posted on January 20, 2025 by normanweatheredmusic

It has been a marvellous week in my music corner. Record Collectors Paradise had a sale of overstocked records that they were selling for $5 each, and the CDs were two for $5. I walked out with ten albums and two CDs and settled in for some serious listening. I made it through five albums, and a new CD player is in the mail. A road trip may be on the to-do list to listen to music; it’s a thing that we love to do: drive, listen to some music, and talk about it.

I also listened to music from Bark and Mystic Sons, PR firms, so I will include some mini reviews of them today as well. So, let’s dive into what I listened to this week.

Ira & Charles Louvin Ira & Charles Louvin

These guys are mostly remembered for the cover of one of their albums, Satan Is Real. For 1959, this was a real kicker. It has mellowed with age and is considered more of a cheesy oddity today. Apart from the album cover, these two gentlemen could sing great harmony between them. Their star shone briefly, but it shone brightly. They mostly played bluegrass with a strong gospel flavour. I grew up listening to this music, so giving it a positive review is only natural.

Loggins & Messina Full Sail

Loggins & Messina So Fine

I was never much of a Loggins & Messina fan, and these two albums did nothing to change that. They aren’t bad; they just aren’t albums that appeal to me.

Spacemen 3 Perfect Prescription

Spacemen 3 are just what the doctor ordered to lift your spirits. I don’t know where to put them genre-wise. Psychedelic trance? It is good music to flop on the sofa and read a book with.

Lee Scratch Perry Reggae Greats

Lee Scratch Perry was a pillar in the reggae scene. He worked with and produced for various artists, including Bob Marley and the Wailers, Junior Murvin, the Congos, Max Romeo, Adrian Sherwood, Beastie Boys, Ari Up, the Clash, the Orb, and many others. That’s an impressive resume.

Crosby, Stills & Nash CS&N

I have been listening to the music of CRN and sometimes Y for a long time. I saw Neil Young live in 1984 and Crosby in 2016, and their albums from the 1970s to the present. This album follows on the heels of Déjà Vu, and that is a hard act to follow. I liked listening to this, but it is not as strong as some of their other material, solo and collectively.

Bob Dylan Slow Train A Coming

The Slow Train is the first of Dylan’s Christian albums, which probably turned a few folks away from listening to this album. The Christians filled that gap nicely. Dylan had been riding a downer with some of the worst reviews in his career. Slow Train pulled him up, and this album received mostly positive reviews and a Grammy. I enjoyed it immensely. I also love the album artwork.

Iron Butterfly In-Gadda-Da-Vida

In-Gadda-Da-Vida is one of those albums that everyone should have in their collection. It is famous for its 17-minute track, In-Gadda-Da-Vida. I doubt if many people could name a song on side one of this album. I listened to it and was surprised at how good it sounded. I hadn’t listened to In-Gadda-Da-Vida for donkey years; this was a good blast from the past.

Bob Dylan Dylan

Dylan, the album, was not a good blast from the past. File this album at the bottom of the pile under oddities. I doubt if I will ever listen to this again.

RORO and snapir COLORS LEFT

I had been savouring the single Mass that RORO and Snapir released last year and anxiously awaited the release of this whole album, Colors Left. It does not disappoint. From the energetic opening track, Tehran Jewel, to Mass, to Colors Left, there is not a dull moment to be had. This needs curated listening, over and over, to catch all the nuances. If this is Colors Left, I am curious to know what Colours Right was all about.

“Our goal was to create a soundscape that represents emotional rebirth,” the duo explains. “Each track is a deliberate exploration of bringing colour back into a monochromatic experience.” The album’s creation served as both a healing process and a platform for artistic discovery, combining digital glitches, dark ambient, and future garage elements with sophisticated production techniques.

From the club-ready rhythms of ‘Fractures’ to the enveloping warmth of ‘Lacuna’ and the primal intensity of ‘Mass,’ each track contributes to a carefully curated sonic journey. Yet, the album’s focus track, Tehran Jewel, establishes the album’s distinctive character, beginning with distorted electronic elements before transitioning into powerful, dark rhythms. The track creates an atmospheric foundation that invites deep listening and interpretation. Throughout the album, carefully constructed moments of dissonance challenge listeners to find meaning within the seeming chaos. As the artists themselves reflect, every element is intentional, making the apparent disorder all the more compelling—. “Nothing is superfluous, making the disorder more intriguing. If everything has its place, how can the pieces feel so randomly fractured?” says the duo.

The music of RORO and snapir on Colours Left challenged and engaged me. The whole album complemented the single Mass, which I had kept on repeat since it hit my inbox last year. I have a strong feeling that this will be on a playlist at the end of the year.

DISCOVER RORO

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DISCOVER SNAPIR

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For all press enquiries, please contact james@barkpr.co.uk, or dan@mysticsons.com

Until next week, happy listening, my friends.

Tango With Lions – The Light Review

Posted on January 19, 2018 by weatheredmusic

Cover Art by Bob Studio, Photo by Despoina Spyrou

Tango With Lions

The Light

Inner Ear Records

The Light marks Tango With Lions’ first release in five years. The highly anticipated follow-up to A Long Walk, The Light is a nine-song album packed with introspective lyrics, haunting vocals, and intricate instrumentals.

Musically, The Light is a bit of a varied album. Early in the album things sound very indie. Singer-Songwriter Katerina Papachristou’s airy dreamy vocals take centre stage as a distant piano and rattling percussion whirl throughout tracks like “Back to One.” Throughout most of the album, Papachristou’s vocals carry hints of Metric’s Emily Haines. Stylistically, things do shift during the course of The Light‘s 34 minutes as by the time you reach songs such as “Last Thrill” or “What You’ve Become” the backing instrumentals garner a sound with more hints of folk rock than indie pop.

Within “The Go Betweens,” one of the most intimate tracks on the album, are some of the most experimental sounds of The Light as buzzing synths add texture to an otherwise sparse and quiet musical landscape, this isolation allows for focus to direct towards Papachristou’s ethereal vocals.

Photo credit by Eftychia Vlachou

Throughout the entirety of The Light, themes of light and dark, optimism and nihilism are explored in-depth as Papachristou explores her own emotions and experiences. While introspective songs can often feel excessively maudlin, Tango With Lions manages to examine poignant ideas without becoming overly melancholy proving that a balance can be achieved between upbeat songs and philosophical subjects.

From its beginning to its end, The Light is an engaging and catchy listen that nicely display the talents of one of Greece’s biggest English-speaking bands while still showing that they have room to grow and experiment.

7.5/10

-Joel Weatherly

Weathered Music

The musical explorations of Norman and Joel Weatherly.

Tag Archives: Album Review

The New Pornographers

April 1-7 2025

January 20, 2025

Tango With Lions – The Light Review