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album: Challengers
artist: The New Pornographers
label: Matador / 2007
score: 77
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by Tim Mathiesen
I had been excited to hear what one of my current favorite bands has created this time around, and couldn't wait for it to be released. A group consisting of brilliant solo artists like Neko Case and Dan Bejar (Destroyer) and led by the pop melody genius Carl Newman can only mean a wonderfully diverse and catchy album. Right? The first three New Pornographers albums are all top notch, creative, quality albums. Especially the debut album, Mass Romantic and their last album, Twin Cinema, which will go down as one of my favorite albums of all time - a modern classic!
So along with Spoon's album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Challengers was my most anticipated album of the year (My two favorite bands releasing albums within a month of each other!). From reviews and comments that I had read, I knew to expect a more laid back collection of songs. I also knew that Dan Bejar had written three songs and most of the album had a Carl Newman influence. The New Pornographers' sound has always come primarily from Carl Newman, but the energy and variety has been a product of collaboration among the members of the group. It really is incredible that this group has been able to stick together through four albums considering Neko and Dan's successful solo careers.
Each song on this album is just as good as any previous song the group has recorded. Some of them may even be their best material to date. The problem is that the album isn't as tight as their previous projects. Dan Bejar's songs tend to feel out of place among Carl Newman's songs on this album, while this wasn't necessarily the case in the past. This hurts the over all quality of the ablum even though Bejar's song, "Myriad Harbor" is one of the best songs I've heard so far this year. The album's title track is one of the most beautiful Neko Case led songs out of all their albums. The song, "All the Things that Go to Make Heaven and Earth" would fit perfectly on Twin Cinema with its upbeat, melodic pop sound. Still, with all these wonderful assets to the album, the band doesn't sound like a tight knit group anymore.
Challengers is subtle evidence that the end may be approaching for this supergroup as we know it. Unless Neko Case and Dan Bejar give up their priorities as solo musicians it appears that they will slowly lose their chemistry and the band may dissolve into a side project. Which is fine with me, if that's what they want, but I just don't want it to affect the quality of any future New Pornographers projects, because so far they have a solid collection of albums!
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