Review:

on 2011-08-15 CharlesMartel Said:

What do you get when you take one member each from a major Canadian indie band, add a country-rock singer with a burgeoning reputation, and then stir in influences from XTC, Cheap Trick, the Buzzcocks and the Beach Boys, and then try to mimic the cheeky chappie attitude of mid-nineties Britpoppers? What you get are the New Pornographers. And if you were going to take this recipe and turn it into a pop album, well what you would have is the band's debut release, "Mass Romantic".

There is no doubt about it, this album is fun. It doesn't take itself too seriously and ensures that no one else does either. Neko Case does her best to sound like Go-Go's era Belinda Carlisle, and at times almost pulls it off, though I generally find her voice to be too adenoidal. The vocal harmonies on tracks like "The Body Says No" recall the American sixties sounds typified by the Beach Boys while the glorious "Letter from an Occupant" has an instantly catchy refrain over a riff which screams British invasion mid-1960s. And if this sort of mix sounds familiar, well it draws on similar influences and styles as Britpop bands like Blur and Suede.

And that is the main problem with this album. Yes it is fun - who could listen to "The Mary Martin Show" and not enjoy it - but it is so derivative it is like listening to something at a pub quiz and being expected to identify the influences. I guess that was almost inevitable given the diverse group of musicians, each with their own musical influences and with a track record and musical history all of their own. So it really depends on what level you want to enjoy this album. If you are looking for anything to LISTEN to, then I suggest you avoid it. If, on the other hand, you want to have a damn good time leaping around and being an arse, then this is the album for you. Something for the party - naturally. But if you want a bit more substance then you may want to look elsewhere.

In that sense this is pop music which tries too hard not to be pop music. Now while I appreciate and applaud any musician who wishes to strike out in a direction to be called uniquely their own, this has to be backed up with substance. The New Pornographers are too derivative to do it musically and therefore seem to have embarked on a lyrical route to the same objective. This poses a problem which the New Pornographers largely fail to overcome  the problem of the completely nonsensical lyric. Many of the songs on here, the majority in fact, have lyrics which make no sense at all. Words seem to be used for effect rather than for anything else and when you are making pop, this is not a strategy which works well.

The result is that you end up with an album of catchy pop music which you cannot sing along to. You can't sing along to it because you can't remember the words and you can't remember the words because they don't make sense and therefore don't stick in your mind. I have never been a fan of the sort of mindless drivel which is put out by a lot of pop bands, but at least shake your funky booty is coherent, if utterly inane. Repeated a dozen times (as it frequently would be in many a mindless pop song) and it eventually sticks in your head.
And this is where the New Pornographers ultimately fail. Good catchy pop tunes are nothing without catchy pop lyrics to go with them. And this album most definitely lacks the latter. As a consequence I found this at the same time compelling and disappointing. I kept listening as if I wanted to reach some kind of understanding, but none came. And who does that with a pop album anyway?
Rating: 6/10