Twin Cinema OMG

Today's Music That Jason Is Badly Smitten With is Twin Cinema, by the New Pornographers. Well, if you've read any of the other NP-related blogs of mine you kind of know what to expect. This is the album where A.C. Newman & company slowed things down, some, but really made some great songs.

There are ballads on here, Neko Case ballads mind you ("These Are The Fables", "Bones of an Idol"), and they're excellent. There are also some more traditional-sounding NP songs ("Jackie, Dressed in Cobras", "Stacked Crooked", "Use It"). There's even an epic song ("The Bleeding Heart Show"), a cheerful almost cult-happy song ("Streets of Fire"), and some bizarre falsetto ("Three or Four"). This album is all across the board but all the songs work. The Bejar songs seem to fit even better with the Newman songs than on the previous albums; also, Kurt Dahle's drumming comes to the forefront of a lot of songs and it seems to be a change for the better. It's clever Canadian indie-pop, probably about as good as it gets.

This album is generally regarded as the best NP's album, and for good reason. It kept the energy of the prior albums but slowed things down a little bit. There's a reason why my name on Myspace was "Bones of an Idol" for the majority of my time there. I absolutely can't recommend this album any more.

I bought this album in early 2006, with the other NP's albums (at the time) as well as Cat Power's The Greatest and The Arcade Fire's Funeral. Is it the best album of this group? Maybe. I'd be hard-pressed to pick between Twin Cinema and Funeral, to be sure.