New Pornographers
Together
Matador Records
May 4

By Melissa Traynor

The New Pornographers have released their latest record Together, rounding out five out albums over a decade. While this last album is a collection of pretty average sounding songs at first, listeners will quickly recognize that the band’s sound has matured and noticeably.

Upon the first few listens, and really throughout the third fourth of fifth listens and beyond, Together is very much typical Pornographers’ brand of indie rock. Almost all tracks incorporate male and female duets between Neko Case, A.C. Newman and Dan Bejar, which makes the band an outstanding group apart from the usual scene. It’s also probably why I always confuse them with the Dirty Projectors (though the Projectors are a far superior band).

Together‘s style is very upbeat and it focuses on acoustic guitars, tambourine, even some orchestral backing to give their music an added layer.

Even the saddest sounding of songs is still happy; “My Shepherd” is kind of a mediocre tune, much more regular rock without any type of flair, but still manages to come off upbeat. The background music, with the exception of the chorus, is very minimal to place a heavier emphasis on the vocals. It’s not totally clear as to whether the song is religious in nature, but the lyrics seems to suggest that said shepherd is Christ. Eww. The least they could have done was disguise it in some flashier music.

There are some significant highlights on the record, however. “Crash Years” – which sounds so average, and I know, it’s not a great term for a song – is easy single material. It’s largely acoustic guitar-driven and uses major chords, a pretty good amount of whistling, and what sounds like an upright bass. Case and Newman share vocal on this pretty standard indie rock track, but I mean standard in a good way. It’s sturdy, memorable with its refrains from the chorus and probably the best song on Together.

Instead, The New Pornographers chose “Your Hands (Together),” a track that’s largely underwhelming. They arranged the vocals, again Case and Newman, so that they sing in unison. This was particularly annoying on Newman’s solo album, and still is now.

Together, however, benefits from the skilled hands involved in its creation. The New Pornographer’s label Matador Records is an especially good one, and certainly their production capabilities have a lot to do with how good this record sounds. Beirut’s Zach Condon contributes trumpets and Will Sheff lends his vocals for a track. While the record is pretty solid on its own, it’s a shame that the unique sounds of guest contributors and their bands (Beirut, Okkervil River, The Dap Kings) did not rub off on Together.