All that is here, and it sounds like a good chocolate chip cookie tastes: warm, a little gooey, sweet with just a touch of bitter. What has always made The New Pornographers great has been amazing harmonies, quirky yet still hooky melodies, and great sing along bits scattered like chocolate chips in a cookie. Let's be honest, if you have a Carl Newman penned song with Neko Case singing lead, that's going to be a damn fine pop song. There are tracks (Darling Shade, Juke) that SHOULD make every setlist the Pornos play from now on, and tracks that WILL (Play Money, High Ticket Attractions) - and that is becoming quite a setlist. Do we miss Dan's quirky contributions, sure we do, but that doesn't ruin anything.
It ranks among the Pornographers best, and that is high praise. The new one never matches up, until the next release and the reviews of previous albums contained in every new review show how good (or bad) the last record REALLY was. The hipster mantra of "I liked their first album best" is everyone's response to every album ever. The hipster mantra of "I liked their first album best" is The problem with success in today's music world, is that it's never enough. The problem with success in today's music world, is that it's never enough. Favorite tracks: Play Money, Whiteout Conditions, We've Been Here Before, Avalanche Alley 10/10 … Expand You might need a couple listens to really start appreciating this album, but believe me it's well worth it. The first time I listened to this album I had it on in the background, and nothing really stood out to me, but when I played it for the second time on my home stereo and while actually listening intently to it, it blew me away. There isn't a bad song included, and the only moment where I was slightly taken out of the flow of the album was during the fifth song, "Darling Shade", which is still a good song, but as I said, it takes you out of the flow of things a little bit. What i'm talking about is more of a layered consistency track to track if you listen to this album a second time, you're going to hear a lot of things that you never noticed the first time. Every song is nearly overwhelming, but not in an intense way (as "BB" was). "Whiteout Conditions" is an amazing album that blends the "Brill Bruisers" powerpop and indie/new wave with more electronic/synth-pop, and psychedelic with a higher emphasis on spacial ambiance, vocal melodies, and almost krautrock-like musical breaks and transitions. "Mass Romantic" still holds my number one spot in the discography, but the newly released, "Whiteout Conditions" now holds the number two spot for me. This was my second favorite album by The New Pornographers up until about two days ago. This album is an amazing return to form, and also the birth of a new style for the band blending psychedelic pop with loud guitars and synths, and using elements of new wave, glam and power pop to create something amazing! Every song is really well crafted, and the production on the album is perfectly booming and in-your-face. Overall I do not like the pace of these two albums, and I think that the song writing and lyrical/musical structure is severely lacking, and although there are some really good songs here ("Myriad Harbour", "Unguided", "Crash Years", "Up in The Dark"), in my opinion, the overall albums start to finish aren't as strong. I didn't like them when I first listened to them, and I still to this day think it's a noticeable point where the band had a drop off in quality.
"Electric Version" is a great album, and I like "Twin Cinema" a lot too, although not as much as the first two then the next two albums, "Challengers" and "Together" came out. not bad for a band that originally were formed to jam out unpolished B-sides from the various other projects by it's core members. "Mass Romantic" is my favorite album by them, and even though that album came out seventeen years ago, The New Pornographers are still releasing excellent albums. "Mass Romantic" is my favorite album by them, and even though that album came out I have been a fan of the New Pornographers for a long time. I have been a fan of the New Pornographers for a long time.
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