Album Review: The New Pornographers - Challengers (4/5)

Canadian "supergroup" The New Pornographers are among the best darlings of indie rock to emerge this decade. Their debut, Mass Romantic, won Canada's Juno Award for Best Alternative Album in 2001. Their first three albums all score in the 80s on Metacritic. They've stayed on top because they developed a winning sound and stuck with it: upbeat, melodic pop/rock with a wink to the '60s and '70s.

The formula changes only slightly on their fouth album, Challengers, which favors quieter melodies over the rocking stompers that dominated their previous work. Opening track "My Right Versus Yours" opens softly with vocals and a few stringed instruments, waiting a minute before the bass and band kick in, but even then it's a more restrained beginning in contrast to the big opening numbers of their previous albums like "Twin Cinema" or "Electric Version." "All the Old Showstoppers" follows, with a sound alternating between folksy and '60s-ish.

The album is also their first to not open with the title track. "Challengers," another mellow number, comes third. The song is a duet between the group's principal singers, male A.C. Newman and female Neko Case. It completes the trio of quieter, mostly acoustic tracks that open the album on a more plaintive note than their others.

Quirky "Myriad Harbor" feels like the band's more typical work, transposing spoken word passages with choral responses, building the guitars toward the choruses, and closing the song with some low stringed instruments, cello perhaps. It also shows how the band can play seriously good music without taking themselves too seriously. The tempo doesn't get amped up much until "All the Things that Go to Make Heaven and Earth," a retro-flavored stomper that again features duelling lead vocals. Pounding piano keys keep the song moving along at a clip. Another member (there are 8 in total), Kathryn Calder, takes vocal lead on swaggering "Failsafe," which uses a cool pulsating electric guitar sound (I've heard it before on Soho's 1990 dance single "Hippychick," but I'm sure there are better comparisons).

The tempo slows down again for "Unguided." At over 6 minutes it is the albums longest track, following right behind the 2:37 "Failsafe," its shortest. The track bursts with sound and then reins in it to almost silence. This song clearly has ambitions to be something special, but it doesn't quiet get there for me. That's okay though, as the effort is commendable. "Entering White Cecilia" is another odd one, okay but not a favorite. "Go Places" features the female lead, Neko Case, and is another slower, but very melodic track. This has the feel of an early '70s love song.

"Mutiny, I Promise You" is another upbeat standout, contrasting electric guitar and bass with flute in the strong chorus. "Adventures in Solitude," as perhaps the title would imply, has the gentlest touch of any of the album's tracks: quiet vocals, quiet piano, and no drums. It does kick up a bit at the end with a string section, but only a bit. Warm closing track "The Spirit of Giving" is one of the lovelier slow songs, punctuated by a nice horns and accordion middle.

I'd be curious to hear what longtime fans of the band--a group that includes some of my dearest friends--think of this album as compared with their others. While I like Challengers, I enjoy the more upbeat, energetic tracks the most, which, on this album emerge as the exception rather than the rule.


Best: My Right Versus Yours, Myriad Harbor, Mutiny I Promise You, All the Things that Go to Make Heaven and Earth, Failsafe, The Spirit of Giving, All the Old Showstoppers