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Music reviews |
A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder
Pop perfection from one of the geniuses behind Canada's New Porno-graphers.
Matador
Release date: 6/8/04
Rating: A-1. Miracle Drug 2:19
- (mp3 from Matador)
2. Drink to Me, Babe, Then 3:32
- (mp3 from Matador)
3. On the Table 3:57
4. Most of Us Prizefighters 2:28
5. The Battle for Straight Time 3:58
6. Secretarial 2:35
7. Come Crash 3:03
8. Better Than Most 2:33
9. The Cloud Prayer 2:28
10. The Town Halo 3:11
11. 35 in the Shade 3:22A.C. (Carl) Newman is one of the guys in Vancouver's New Pornographers who – though his voice and guitar are front and center – tend to get eclipsed in that group by Neko Case. The Slow Wonder, Newman's first solo record, makes immediately obvious that his songwriting is the main engine behind the NPs' pop genius.
While the NPs' 2 albums (2000's Mass Romantic and the 2003 Electric Version) are great fun, I like Newman's solo record a bit better. The NPs have a tendency to be so frenetic and hyperactive that it gets a bit dorky (listen to "All for Swinging You Around" or "Mystery Hours"); listening to them can be like trying to have a conversation with someone who's had a few too many cups of coffee. The Slow Wonder isn't exactly decaf, but it does take the edge off. Most of the time, Newman slows it down (hence the album's title?) and puts the melodies up front.
The whole album is 33 minutes, with none of the eleven songs clocking in over four minutes. Nearly every one is gorgeous, intricate, guitar-based pop from the Posies / Fountains of Wayne / Teenage Fanclub playbook, which somehow never seems to get old. The production is clean and sophisticated but not overly glossy. Newman's guitar is prominent, but other instruments find their way up front: there's lots of piano, but also trumpet, cello, accordion, people whistling, whatever works. Newman's voice is a bit thin but holds the tune admirably, and he adds good harmonies, including a female voice, Sara Wheeler. Most tracks reveal themselves as brilliant after a couple of listens; oddly, the ones that grab you first – like "Secretarial" and "On the Table" – are the ones that, after a few listens, you'll be less likely to want on your mix CDs.
The opener, "Miracle Drug," grabs you right away with its syncopated rhythm, guitar riff and cockeyed lyrics. It also sounds a lot like it could be a New Pornographers song, a better one at that. It's followed by the decidedly un-NPs "Drink to Me Babe, Then," one of two songs on the album that successfully combines a slow, thumping beat, acoustic strumming and wistful lyrics. The other is the fourth track, "Most of Us Prizefighters," which is probably my favorite on the entire disc.
"On the Table" is another NPs soundalike, a catchy confection that perhaps runs a minute too long. "The Battle for Straight Time" and "Better than Most" seem to have the fewest pop hooks of any song on the album; while the choruses and bridges are perfectly pleasurable, you have to work through some long, plodding verses in order to get to them.
"Secretarial" would be the first-released hit single in a parallel universe where albums like this one get played on the radio, and it's great fun. But perhaps because it layers on the Ric Ocasek-New Wave sheen a bit too heavily, "Secretarial" doesn't really stand up to a lot of repeat listening.
"The Cloud Prayer," a downtempo piano-and-guitar tune, builds up to an impossibly pretty, harmonic chorus. The trumpet part is terrific too. (Wait, maybe this is my favorite song on the album.)
"The Town Halo," with its plinking piano and repeated cello riff, another great pop tune that the New Pornographers don't get to record. The cello gets a bit tired near the end of the song, though, by what seems like the 500th repetition of the same 6-note riff.
Though some of the above might sound a little critical, I like nearly all of the album's tracks a lot, and they're awfully easy to like. None of them are tossed-off or throwaways. Are there any flaws? Well, The Slow Wonder does sound more like a collection of singles than an album – it shifts mood frequently from song to song. That might owe more to the ordering of the tracks than anything else, though. The lyrics are generally meaningless ("do-re-mi-innocent," goes the chorus of "On the Table") or just unintelligible. I can't think of much else bad to say about the record, though, so this paragraph is over.
I especially like the fact that Newman made The Slow Wonder using grant funds from the Canada Music Fund, a Canadian government program! Wow, government money going to foster the creation of good pop music – now that's what I call a country that's clear about its national mission. Canada is cool. Can you imagine the U.S. government ever having a program like that? (Well, maybe you could get a grant if you insisted that your band was "faith based"…)
