Context – usual Monday morning melancholy

I decided to combat today’s context with something a bit more uplifting and familiar, so rather than strike new oil I’m just seeing how deep an existing well goes.  Turns out The New Pornographers have released several albums that are not Challengers, which is the only one of theirs I currently own or have listened to. But based on how excellent Challengers is I have full faith in the rest of their discography.

Their previous album, Twin Cinema, does little to shake my faith.  If anything, I’m sad for the state of my wallet now that my full faith has been rewarded and I’m ready to escalate my love of this band into blind album buying territory.  No one escapes these fits unscarred.

Fun little aside: I got these guys and Porno for Pyros confused for years.  I’m not sure what it is about soft-rock that evokes various levels of porn, but I find the convention entertaining.  Maybe Mumford and Sons should have named themselves Mumford’s Son’s Porn to keep the tradition going.

Being primarily background music played through my computer speakers, I couldn’t really crank the volume enough to hear all of the wonderful little things The New Pornographers do musically.  The benefit of this approach, though, is now that I’ve established I like the album, I can listen to it ad nauseum and make more realized arguments about why you should also love this band.  Those will probably come whenever they release their newest album.  To give a brief preview of what is (most likely) in store:

“The quiet contemplation of The New Pornographers [Album Title] doesn’t bore the listener outright, promising enough at the horizon to keep all sails at full mast, but not so much as to disappoint or over-hype the destination.  In a world where every band wants to attach indie to their sub-genre, it’s nice to know that a band can still largely exist in this nebulous without feeling like another instance of over-saturation.”

So for the time being, rest assured with the fact that if you want some softer indie music to play at your next barbecue, The New Pornographers are a safe bet.  Bonus points for this scenario: telling your mom you’re listening to Pornography should be entertaining for at least 5 minutes.  Unless your mom is into porn.  In which case you’ll have just that little bit extra to bond over.