If having separate solo careers is an indication of the New Pornographers’ status as indie icons (as Jimmy Fallon called them last month), here’s more evidence: Neko Case and the two other lead vocalists, Carl Newman and Dan Bejar, spend so much time apart with other projects that the New Pornographers reportedly used seven different studios to record Together.
Although they chose the rocking “Your Hands (Together)” for the first single, I’m partial to the instrumental, “Valkyrie in the Roller Disco,” with its cello, violins and banjos. Although Case’s vocals fade to the background in “Moves” and “If You Can’t See My Mirrors,” they are two of the strongest songs, with the band’s signature ‘60s-themed power pop and witty lyricism. But one of this ensemble’s most impressive talents — beyond everything else they do — is the symphonic, perfectly on-point whistling on the third track, “Crash Years.”
DOWNLOAD: “Valkyrie in the Roller Disco”
