Vancouver’s The New Pornographers’ sixth LP Brill Bruisers begins in emphatic fashion, with the buoyant and infectious title track. The switch to the female vocal-led Champions of Red Wine is a jarring change of pace. It’s not a bad track, but given the previous track’s immense quality and brevity at just under three minutes, you just wish that mood would keep going instead of the tempo dropping noticeably.
Fantasy Fools picks up the mood again, mixing both male and female vocal duties with really pleasing results. One of the best songs found on the record is easily War On The East Coast. Sonically, it’s like an ’80s arcade game soundtrack and the vocals are cool, effortless and beautifully flawed. Marching Orders is another good number, as is the sweet sounding Another Drug Deal of the Heart.
The back half of the album doesn’t manage to deliver much. Born With A Sound and Dancehall Domine are the standouts of the second act, however on the whole the band doesn’t go on with it as much as you’d like. Traditionally speaking, the first half of albums are always better, however the really great albums are consistently good all the way through.
Brill Bruisers has great variation of moods, styles and the large amount of vocalists make it sound like a mix-tape, yet overall it just feels like wasted potential.
BY ALEXANDER CROWDEN
Best Track: Brill Bruisers
If You Like These, You’ll Love This: The Decemberists, Spoon, Okkervil River
In A Word: Unfulfilling
