The New Pornographers have never been a lyrics band. To quote the opening lines from their debut album: "Mass romantic fool wears Foster Grants / His books on tape ring true / When everyone wants to say 'I love you' / To someone on the radio, radio." Sure, whatever the hell that means — the melody is amazing, so it doesn't really matter.But on their 10th album, The Former Site Of, bandleader A.C. Newman has honed his playful gibberish to the point that it's become his signature style, delightful rather than simply a way to fill the syllables of his towering power pop melodies.Every song is a barrage of surreal, semi-sensical riffs on familiar idioms. "Now we're watching Oscar bait / Because the paywall's been torn down," Newman sings amidst the burble of cosmic synths and spaghetti Western twang on opener "Great Princess Story," seemingly alluding to the endless entertainment and existential despair of being terminally online. "The sidereal doo-wop of the rain / On the skylight, yeah, it played," he and Neko Case harmonize on "Bonus Mai Tais," reminding listeners that new sentences are being created every day."Wish You Could See Me I'm Killing It" is particularly vivid, Newman weaving a tale about flower shopping while stretching the tender melody around words like "bougainvillea" and "delphinium," and joking, "Just get the ones they have on sale," before delivering the gut punch that he's buying them to lay on the grave of the titular "you." I wish you could see Newman writing lyrics, because he's killing it.This lyric-forward approach is fitting for an album that feels more like a solo vehicle than any New Pornographers album before it. Sure, co-songwriter Dan Bejar has been absent for a few albums now, but Newman usually hands off lead vocals to Case and Kathryn Calder at least a few times per record. On The Former Site Of, the New Pornographers are now the former site of a collaboration; in its place is a singer-songwriter vehicle for Newman, the mellow acoustic guitars and washes of synths sounding like a follow-up to his 2012 solo album Shut Down the Streets. It makes sense, since the New Pornographers have always been Newman's band first and foremost, and I'm sure he sells exponentially more albums by putting the band name on the cover rather than his own. However, stand-out single "Votive" shows what we're missing: following an intro of mandolin and MIDI piano, it explodes about two minutes in, an anxious electric guitar and straight-ahead drum surge throwing back to the sound of the band 20 years ago. I don't have a clue what the lyrics are about or what "votive" means, but the song absolutely bangs.
Wavelength
Rate and discover music with friends
