Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Still Together?


I've written twice now about the New Pornographers' Together, once with a lot of love and once with a little skepticism. Since the latter post, I've found that when I put the album on, I tend to leave it on for another song and another song, and so on. I stay with it, and songs keep paying off with smart touches that continue to surprise such as the melody inserted almost gratuitously in the bridge to "Crash Years" that becomes the vocal melody for the outro. During the verse of "Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk," it's hard to imagine how the chorus will follow this, but the instrumental pre-chorus makes the connection seem inevitable. And though I admire the touches like these in almost every song, more often than not I'm simply singing along in the car, which is as good a barometer of pop as I can think of.