The New Pornographers Album: “Mass Romantic [Remaster]”

The New Pornographers, a collective of indie artists from Vancouver, have created an album that's so catchy, so sugary-sweet that it leaves you with a sugar rush while overflowing like sodapop fizz. Every single song on Mass Romantic possesses hooks that stay in your head forever.

The songs, written by Zumpano's Carl Newman and Destroyer's Dan Bejar, contain enigmatic, clever lyrics ("Hope grows greener than grass stains") and lift styles from bands like Devo, The Cars, the Go-Go's, The Beatles (of course), Elvis Costello & The Attractions, and the Beach Boys; at one point you even hear Supertramp's influence. If a band can steal a hook from Supertramp, the worst band in rock history, and make it sound good, you know you have something special in your hands.

Four of the band's members share vocal duties, but it's Neko Case who steals the show. On the title track, and especially the glorious 'Letter From An Occupant', Case, who moonlights as a terrific country singer, joyously belts out the tunes a la Belinda Carlisle. 'Letter From An Occupant' could very well be the best song I've heard this year. During the bridge two minutes into the song (where they sing "the song, the song that's shakin' me"), you feel it will just peter out and fade out, but the band decides to prolong the fun a bit more and repeats the chorus, complete with its 'woo-ooh' harmony vocals, for another minute. Absolutely perfect. The repeat button on your cd player was made for songs like this.

Every song is great, but other standouts are 'The Fake Headlines', the humourously self-deprecating 'The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism', and the gleeful 'The Body Says No'.

Lately Canada has been producing musical bores that are either pretentious, soul-gushing female Lilith Fair-types or dull, sound-alike alterna-bands that play the same outdated tuneless grungy sludge. The New Pornographers show there's hope for Canadian music, and this one-off project is too great to yield only one album. here's hoping we'll hear more from them in the years to come.

I first heard The New Pornographers on a Matador compilation and was imediately taken by their pop aesthetic. I guess it can be summed as traditional 3 minute upbeat power pop - but it is mixed with a sense of freedom and experimentation and can be quite exclectic at times without being contrived or self indulgent. This makes it quite unique. I would recomened this album to anyone who loves clever catchy guitar pop and is looking for something new to sink their ears into.

OK, this is like one of your parents reviewing the CD, most likely, but this music triggers memories of a lot of old bands that only us old folks remember. I don't care much for most of the overly-sanitized pop-rock of the last few years, but none of it sounds very much like this CD to me. The New Pornographers bring back the pseudo-psychedelic vocal harmonies of late 1960's AM pop music and use it in as original a way as one can when borrowing old ideas and mixing them with 21st century instrumentation and production. If you're old enough that the Vines or Hives evoke the early Kinks or Who, then you're old enough that the New Pornographers may evoke something more similar to a mad blend of the Cowsills, the Mamas and Papas, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, the Beach Boys, the Monkees, and a dozen one-hit wonders.

This CD does remind me of others who have invented new music with skills reminiscent of and perhaps superior to that of the Beatles, but who wound up on the ash heap of music history having gone from a year of respect to being jokes. Does anyone remember The Knack being compared to the Beatles way back when? Hearing this CD reminds me of hearing the early Bangles on a college radio station, back when they were an indie group with the 80's version, to many, of Beatle-esque skill in songwriting, playing, and singing. All that's left now may be "My Sharona" and "Walk Like an Egyptian" and bad VH1 specials, but there's something great about truly skilled pop musicians getting together and recording, whether they're ever appreciated for it or not. So those two bands reminded people of the Beatles at one time. The B-52's and Go-Go's reminded some of mid-1960's surf music, mutated in the new wave years. I can't name a band this CD sounds like - they manage to create their own unique sound even as they shamelessly appropriate sounds from my childhood.

What strikes me about "Mass Romantic" isn't Neko Case's voice, which I find unremarkable, or the lyrics, which are forgettable, but the brilliant use of harmony. The New Pornographers may be in the wrong time and place, but they deserve to be heard as remarkably talented musicians who have created at least one CD of some of the most original derivative music imaginable. Every song is worth listening to here; the music is perfectly and, I imagine, lovingly crafted. They may not be lyricists, but the sounds are as sweet as can be. I'd say it's worth the purchase price, even for a geezer.

i bought this album with a gift certificate, so i pretty much took a chance on it since it really wasn't my own money. when i first popped it into the cd player i can't say i loved it at first listen. it was too synthesized, too "bright". but a few songs really grabbed me. "mass romantic", "my slow descent...", and "letter from an occupant" easily get jammed into your skull, like it or not. after awhile, i couldn't NOT listen to the album. i guess everyone who grew up in the 80's has a little soft spot for new wave, like it or not.

this is perfect pop music. it's like that rare pop song, that no matter how many times it's played on the radio, you still can't get enough of it. but this is a whole album of that song. but be warned, you'll be humming stuff off of this cd for months.

Creating an album with bands like The Beach Boys and The Zombies serving as primary reference points along side a healthy dose of new wave doesn't seem like the surest formula of success in the year 2000. And in fact the debut by The New Pornographers, Mass Romantic, has to be the most anachronistically poppy album I've heard in ages, but somehow it works. Carl Newman, formerly of Zumpano, has assembled his favorite fellow Canadian popsters on these twelve tracks for the express purpose of hashing out some of the most blissful hooks this side of Radio City, and they don't disappoint.

Of course the album is really buoyed by the presence of Neko Case, who delivers vocals on two of the album's highlights, the title track and "Letter From an Occupant." Just for the idea of casting country crooner Case as a pop vocalist, the album deserves special attention, but Case's presence is no gimmick - her tracks are two of the album's strongest. "Mass Romantic" carries over some Nashville stylings from Case's solo career, but it's "Letter From an Occupant," the album's best track, which stands out. This is pure pop music, made especially for people who won't take their pop without lots of oohing vocal lines to sing along to.

What's really incredible about Mass Romantic is the degree of consistency the album offers. From the opening drumstick countoff of "Mass Romantic" all the way through to the off-kilter "Breakin' The Law," Mass Romantic is constantly engaging and listenable. The only caveat I'd offer is that music like this inevitably has a limited shelf life, and tracks like "Execution Day" and "The Mary Martin Show" don't shine with the same exuberance after repeated listens as most of the other songs here.

So don't expect anything new. Just expect that you'll be humming tunes like "The Fake Headlines" and "The Body Says No" to yourself for the next several months at least. Big guitars, goofy organ lines, and unbearably memorable choruses are what this band is all about, not pushing the envelope of sound. But everyone needs a shot of shamelessly syrupy melodies in their life, so those whose hearts aren't slabs of concrete should feel free to open up and let this little gem brighten things up a little.