[rating=3.50]
It’s ironic that both The New Pornographers and Broken Social Scene released their new albums on the same day: two Canadian collectives with both old and young members now fighting the unavoidable “super-group” tag. However Together, the fifth album from The New Pornographers, sticks to their now well versed formula: AC Newman and his compadres playing the sunny and dark along with very special guests Neko Case and Destroyer’s Dan Bejar. Together melds the pop flawlessness of 2005’s Twin Cinema with the eccentric flair of 2007’s Challengers into one cool carton of high-powered indie rock (if we can still consider Matador indie).
Similar as in past efforts from The New Pornographers, the beauty of the full-fledged final work lies in Case’s alt-indie-siren-goddess vocals, AC Newman’s polished songwriting, and Bejar’s off-the wall weirdness. The track two, three and four punch of the jingly “Crash Years", a raucous “Your Hands (Together)” and the bizarre “Silver Jenny Dollar,” mimic this three part unique contribution effort. But then you get the sparse “ Valkyrie in the Roller Disco,” there is a quiet beauty that we haven’t quite heard from the Pornographers in their prior four albums. As you dig deeper, the robust “Up in the Dark,” the cutesy twee pop of “You Can’t See My Mirror” and the sing along closer, “We End Up Together” provide more of the track by track diversity that shows the band has pillagedthe best of their prior two acclaimed recordings and tied it into a fresh knot. However for most fans expecting the death-blow of power pop that elevated our ears on Twin Cinema, there won’t be that “made for radio in a perfect world” this time around: instead Together is mostly unpredictable porn, but porn you’ll want more of.
