silence kit #14

The New Pornographers
Mass Romantic [Mint, 2000]

I’m not aware of too many power-pop albums with songs that are quite as heinously infectious as those on Mass Romantic, the hyperdriven debut of Canada's The New Pornographers. Where his former band Zumpano might well be one of nineties indie’s better kept secrets, Carl Newman truly jumps out of the gates with this set of twelve tuneful, thematically nonsensical pop songs (not one filler) that provide instant gratification – Mass Romantic certainly does not feel like an album that was recorded sporadically by the band over the course of three years, as each of the members were kept busy with commitments to other bands. While aided no doubt by the presence of associates like Neko Case (whose singing on “Mass Romantic” and “Letter From An Occupant” lends some legitimate star power) and the habitually cryptic songsmith Dan Bejar, the sharp sensations imprinted on Mass Romantic are mostly dominated by Newman's pop-monomaniac personality. Newman’s eclectic songs like “The Fake Headlines” and “The Body Says No” rolls along with the kind of patterned amusements that recklessly fuel serialized pocketbook adventures, while the two Bejar numbers are typical of his melodramatic shambles, as we would come to know from his various recordings that follows under the Destroyer banner. As with pop music of such exuberance, The New Pornographers could not quite keep up with the quality of Mass Romantic. The immediate follow-up Electric Version in 2003 comes pretty close actually, with three songs in particular (“From Blown Speakers”, “The Laws Have Changed” and “Testament to Youth in Verse”) matching their wit up with pop verve to great effect. But then again, three prawns do not make a galaxy.