Together

As near as I can remember, the only time I was right about anything was on the 18th of June 2007. The place was London's Islington Academy, it was quite a nice day, and I was interviewing New Pornographers frontman Carl Newman. At some point I rather rudely blurted out a suggestion that people probably weren't going to like the band's fourth album - the at that point to be released Challengers - as much as its predecessors. He politely expressed his total lack of botherment (no surprise – dude is affable), but, er, yeah, I was kind of right. Though in fact a pretty good record, Challengers failed to scale the heights of its predecessor, the peerless power pop landmark of Twin Cinema. It was good , but it felt diminished, the newfound sense of stateliness and maturity that had added a certain majesty to Twin Cinema now weighing the music down. The songs plodded rather than soared, pleasant (sometimes exquisitely so) but without the near nuclear joie de vivre of their earlier material. Certainly it spoke volumes that the best pop moments came from Dan Bejar, a man whose presence in the band had, in times past, often seemed like a sinister wind up.

Canada’s penchant for popping out musical super groups may always be a mystery, but there’s no denying its cash-crop potential. The sheer amount of people on stage at your average Broken Social Scene show is spectacle-esque, and I’ve got to assume Traveling Wilburys' fans were prone to wetting themselves on a regular basis. Whatever creates super groups — whether it be record execs, cult Kool-Aid, or just plain ol’ artist creativity — I do know that they get eaten up by the college radio community faster than vegan burritos at a dress-like-your-favorite-90210-character dance party. I’ve also determined that, in the public eye, people drool over super groups without a thought given to the actual results. But what about The New Pornographers?