It’s been 20 years since I roller-skated, but every time I hear “All the Things That Go to Make Heaven and Earth” off fourth New Pornographers album Challengers, I feel like trading my shoes in for wheels, donning a glow-in-the-dark T-shirt and whipping around some corners to the most roller-friendly anthem to hit the rinks since Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up” and Devo’s “Whip It.”
By comparison, the rest of Challengers feels downright subdued, a shocker considering Vancouver’s indie supergroup attained a new degree of songwriting sophistication on 2005’s Twin Cinema without sacrificing a bit of its addictive pop allure. Not that any of the 12 new tunes are shameful; most are agreeable enough, even if the disc’s best moments are noticeably front-loaded: the drowsily developing hook in Carl Newman opener “My Rights Versus Yours,” Neko Case’s luscious vocal on the title cut, the storytelling lyrics of Dan Bejar’s “Myriad Harbour” and the aforementioned joy of “All the Things That Go to Make Heaven and Earth.”
Yet for all those songs’ individual merits, Challengers doesn’t produce enough of what we’ve come to expect—nay, demand—from the New Pornos. Where’s the “Letters From an Occupant”? “The End of Medicine”? “From Blown Speakers”? “The Laws Have Changed”? “All for Swinging You Around”? “Use It”? “Sing Me Spanish Techno”? Since 2000, Newman and his merry bunch have bombarded us with catchiness and amazed us with the apparent ease with which they seem able to produce it.
Unfair as it may be to chide a band for breaking formula, when the formula is this damn lovable I’m left with little choice. Considering the external outlet each key member has to tinker with divergent compositional styles—Bejar’s Destroyer, Case’s solo efforts, Newman’s “A.C.” project—it seems best to reserve the New Pornographers moniker for the best old-school pornography the group can muster together.
The New Pornographers
Challengers
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