Challengers

We Say...

Review by Matthew Fritch

Meet the new New Pornographers, same as the old New Pornographers. When Pete Townshend turned that phrase about bosses back in the Nixon era, it was a statement about complacency and spirit-crippling stasis. But where the New Pornographers are concerned, there’s little to rebel against; chief songwriter and singer Carl Newman is a benevolent leader, democratically doling out vocal parts to his almost-famous cast of indie-rock players: redheaded force of nature Neko Case, eccentric Destroyer bard Dan Bejar and Immaculate Machine’s Kathryn Calder (who also happens to be Newman’s niece). More important, the New Pornographers’ four-album reign — from 2000 debut Mass Romantic to the new Challengers — has been one of the fairest and most consistent 21st-century pop-album runs.

So it’s not like it's incumbent upon Challengers to smash the system Newman has designed, a musical blueprint roughly inspired by Love’s orchestral-pop flourishes and choppy, Cars-like guitar. His songs are still constructed like rollercoasters, with multiple chorus peaks and melodic twists jammed into each three- or four-minute ride. It’s still thrilling to hear the mixed-and-matched vocalists; the best pairing this time out involves Calder and Bejar trading lines on the folk-rap shuffle “Myriad Harbour.” And when Case breaks into Latin on “Go Places,” it’s reminiscent of ABBA’s flight into “Fernando” territory, a fringed-outfit diva moment in the spotlight.

While it’s nice of the New Pornographers to show up once again with the musical goods, Challengers also addresses one of the band’s biggest problems: a perceived lack of unity. Part of this perception stems from the hired-hand stigma where Case and Bejar are concerned and part has to do with Newman’s lyrics. A student of the Robert Pollard school of abstract words that sound cool, Newman doesn’t do straight narratives, so nobody really knows what his songs are about. But great bands leave clues along the trail for their fans, so on Challengers, we get Newman singing "When John saw that number, he lied" — a nod to "John Saw That Number," a track on Case's 2006 album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. It's a smart way to eliminate division, huddling the band members' estimable solo careers under the New Pornographers' umbrella.

There’s also the continuation of the Pornographers’ most famous conceit: a new girl-group-style nonsense syllable for each album. For Challengers, it’s the title track’s chorus of “oh-la”s; past albums have given us “hey-la” (on 2005’s Twin Cinema), “na-na-na” (2003’s Electric Version) and “woo-ooh” (Mass Romantic).

But that isn’t the extent of the inside jokes: In an era of indie-rock one-album wonders, titling this record Challengers is a fine bit of rope-a-dope, if not a total wind-up. The New Pornographers are clearly the champs.