The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers

So klingt es also, wenn The New Pornographers, das kanadische Indierock-Kollektiv um A.C. Newman, Dan Bejar und Neko Case, ein schillerndes Partypop-Album abliefern! Der "Brill Bruisers"-Schriftzug auf dem Plattencover leuchtet eben so bunt wie das Album, über das Newman, aus dessen Feder 10 der 13 Songs stammen, sagt: 

"a celebration record... After periods of difficulty, I am at a place where nothing in my life is dragging me down and the music reflects that."

Es gibt herrlichen Girl/Boy-Gesang ("Fantasy Fools"), eingängige Refrains ("War On The East Coast"), verschachtelten Harmoniegesang ("Brill Bruisers"), prägnanten Power-Pop ohne ruppige Ecken und knarzende Kanten ("Born With A Sound"), dafür mit viel Synthie-Geplugger wie Grandaddy vor vielen ("Marching Orders") und Stars in den letzten Jahren ("Wide Eyes", "Champions Of Red Wine") und daher leider auch den ein oder anderen seichten Leerlauf wie "Backstairs" oder "Hi-Rise".

The New Pornographers - War On The East Coast (2014)

Auf BRILL BRUISERS tritt die Band um die Songwriter Neko Case, Carl Newman und Dan Bejar (alias Destroyer) sofort mit dem Titelstück den Beweis an: Da werfen sie sich mit vollem Elan in Form von hymnisch unterlegten „Bo-ba-bababa-bo“-Gesängen ins Getümmel, dass man sich fragt, was für Aufputschmittel hier wohl im Spiel waren.

„War On The East Coast“, aus Bejars Feder, jagt los wie ein Windhund, die „Marching Orders“, von denen Neko Case singt, kommen als Hommage an den Vierviertel-Takt daher, und in „Born With A Sound“ reflektieren Bejar und Case im Duett hübsch darüber, wie das ist mit der Musik im Kopf und dem Songwriting. Live dürften die erfrischend überkandidelten Stücke sicher ein rechter Spaß werden.
(Musikexpress)

Most importantly, Brill Bruisers is very good, informed by the baroque-pop ornamentation of Together, but with a return to the concision, melodicism and dynamism of the band’s first three records. It opens with the title track, which pretty much sets the record’s stall out – it’s sunny, it’s snappy, Newman’s voice is cradled in ornate “baba-ba-ba” backing vocals from the ladies, there’s a cool middle-eight, there’s that curious Pornos frisson of passionate delivery meeting lyrics that are basically incompressible (something that seems to work better for the band when a song has a bit more pizzazz to it).

Perhaps because of the restlessly shifting complexity of the vocal arrangements and short track lengths, there’s a certain flow to the album – a pleasing homogeneity even – that means it can be hard to even credit the fact there are 13 songs on there. The feel approaches that one continuous movement, or lots of little ones, a bubble bath of lustrous sound. That’s not to say moments don’t stand out: ‘Dancefloor Domine’ is twee pop of the most ruthlessly catchy order, ‘Backstairs’s eerie “there is another west” chorus is a grade-A ear worm, ‘Champions of Red Wine’ proffers Challengers -style introspection without the clunky naval gazing. But it’s much harder to spot the joins now. Where before Bejar kind of sounded like the mad scientist who’d crashed everyone else’s party, now his songs now comes liberally doused in Calder, and are in any case as close to Newman’s sensibilities as he’s ever likely to get – the fuzz bomb pop of ‘War on the East Coast’ is probably the most tuneful thing he’ll ever do without an actual voice transplant, while the excellent ‘Born with a Sound’ segues seamlessly from Caulder’s lovely ‘Another Drug Deal of the Heart’.

At the risk of banging on about it, Brill Bruisers – like most albums – isn’t as good as Mass Romantic. But its qualities are manifold, and it is a delight to note that after some 15 years together, the New Pornographers seems to have stopped being a supergroup and turned into a band.
(Drowned In Sound)  

The New Pornographers in Deutschland:

05.12.14 Köln, Gebäude 9