By Garrison Keillor
Apr. 09, 2008 | For some people, the urge to compete is very, very strong, such as the tall red-haired woman last Sunday morning at LaGuardia who cut in front of me at the boarding gate and did it so smoothly, expertly, no body contact, you have to assume she's been acing people out all her life. She was standing behind me and then alongside and then, although I was moving forward behind the old lady in front of me, Red Riding Hood planted her right foot in front of my left foot and leaned over and handed her ticket to the gate agent and without a murmur of apology or explanation, she slipped into the jetway. Pure competitive urge, for no prize at all, as you see every day on the freeway at rush hour, the salmon leaping, cutting each other off, to get back home three minutes earlier than if they'd gone with the flow.
A few years ago I would have felt like pulling her hair out by the roots and spitting on her shoes and saying a few words about the importance of civility, but I am over that now. I don't care if you step on my blue suede shoes, just don't steal my laptop and don't hurt my baby. I'm not the judge of other people's manners. I come from quiet, mannerly Midwestern people and evidently she was raised in a home in which you had to elbow your way to the feed trough. Not her fault, just as what manners I have are to my mother's credit and not mine.
Back where I'm from, it's considered boorish to thrust yourself forward ahead of those who've been waiting longer. We are brought up to defer, an After You Alphonse reflex, and wave others to go first at the intersection, and sometimes we use deference aggressively, as a way of encouraging fools to walk out on thin ice and fall in, so we can enjoy seeing them flounder and then perhaps rescue them. And so committee meetings in the Midwest can be torturous: The knowledgeable sit back and listen to some clueless gasbag blow for awhile and an eternity passes and the main questions are never addressed and eventually the meeting grinds to a halt and some poor soul is left to do the hard work on her own and the gasbag goes on to his next triumph.
The daughter of a friend is 15 and full of the competitive urge, anxious to start driver's ed and get on with her life, miffed about the twerp who beat her out for class president, horrified by a rash of pimples, worried that she is ugly and that her Wal-Mart clothes are not cool enough and where will she go to college and why doesn't her boyfriend call her. The other night at supper, she asked, "Is fellatio considered a normal sexual practice?" and her poor father almost coughed up a hairball.
It's an agonizing time when you feel your peers edging ahead and the cool people aren't seeking you out and almost every day somebody announces a cool new job, or a big romance, or the receipt of an awesome gift, some fresh kill from the jungle, and it depresses you. You don't want to be a loser. And you sense the fact that, in life, so much -- so very much -- is pure luck, no matter what they want you to think, and an angel may knock at your door in the person of a beggar, and you say No, and that No will resound for the rest of your born days. It is agonizing to think about.
I don't care about the red-haired woman: It's the 15-year-old who matters. Whatever happens, be observant, darling, and First Place is not a good observation point. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. There is grace afoot in the world and it will find you. You don't have to be first in line: It will be diligent in pursuing you and passing on its gifts, which are faith, hope, love and a sense of humor. The harder you strive for a gift, the more it eludes you, so let the lady step ahead of you. Keep your eyes open.
By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, April 15, 2008; A15
Long ago I discovered that the word "frankly" often meant a lie was coming. I learned this from an insurance agent, who preceded every attempt to sell me useless coverage with a "frankly." This is why I distrust what Hillary Clinton said about Barack Obama and his admittedly klutzy statement about guns, church, immigrants and bitterness -- "elitist, out of touch and, frankly, patronizing," she said. Frankly, I don't believe her.
And this, frankly or not, is the trouble with Clinton. Obama clearly misspoke. But there are very few moments with him where I feel that he does not believe what he is saying -- even when, as with his lame capitulation of leadership regarding the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, I can't respect it. With Clinton, on the other hand, those moments are frequent. She is forever saying things I either don't believe or believe that even she doesn't believe. She is the personification of artifice.
The current fuss is an example. She turned Obama's statement into an affront to gun lovers everywhere, which it just might be. But since when is Hillary Clinton a gun lover, a hunter or even a weekend skeet shooter? She is apparently none of the above -- at least she will not say when she last fired a gun. The truth, if a guess is allowed, is that she does not give a damn about guns and hunting, and when she brings up her "churchgoing family" and "Our Town" values, they are expressions of treacly nostalgia and not the life of incredible affluence and situational morality she now enjoys. To paraphrase Dorothy, Clinton left Kansas a long time ago.
At times, Barack Obama has the air of a maitre d' who shows you to a bad table. It's the impeccable suit. It's the air of consummate confidence. It's the awesome self-assurance that comes from knowing that he has something you want. In the headwaiter's case, it's a good table. In Obama's case, it's himself.
That air of self-confidence can sometimes come off as smugness or indifference. The signal moment for that came in a New Hampshire debate when Obama glanced at Clinton and said, by way of dismissal, "You're likable enough, Hillary" -- a kiss-off as head-snapping as when James Cagney smashed a grapefruit into Mae Clarke's puss in the 1931 classic "The Public Enemy."
It is this quality of Obama's -- this sense that you need him more than he needs you -- that probably explains why Clinton seized upon his remarks about the poor of Pennsylvania and elsewhere who, in Obama's artless telling, have turned to God and guns. It was, as he conceded, a bumbling attempt to express an economic truth, and it gave her a chance to imply that you can judge this particular book by its cover. But the spirit of what Obama said was not condescension but empathy. People were hurting. They were bitter. He understood.
The campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination has become a version of that crack about academic politics -- so vicious because the stakes are so small. In the presidential race, the stakes are huge but the differences are small. Both Clinton and Obama are liberal Democrats -- the former less liberal than the latter, but no matter. One is more experienced than the other. One is white, the other black, and one is a woman and the other is not. Still, on mortgages, Iraq, Israel and almost anything you can name, they are in general agreement.
That's why the campaign has increasingly been about what one or the other candidate said or meant to say or should have said. It's even been about what one of their supporters said -- Geraldine Ferraro on race, Merrill A. McPeak on patriotism, Billy Shaheen on cocaine and Bill Clinton on just about everything. Both campaigns have indulged in this silliness, with Obama's supporters yelling "race!" the way a certain boy cried "wolf!" and the Clintons, on occasion, pretending to a kind of political naivete that ill becomes them.
Obama should not have attributed a yearning to hunt or attend church to hard economic times. The remarks will haunt him -- witness how John McCain has also called them "elitist." But Obama was right about the economic roots of bitterness and anti-immigrant sentiment. And he's been right, too, about the patent insincerity of Clinton's criticism. Her attack is hardly based on a touching regard for gun owners or even churchgoers, but on the desperate hope that the smoothly aloof Obama can be painted as arrogant and elitist. It's old, tiresome politics -- the politics of politics -- and, paradoxically, more patronizing than anything Obama himself said.
Frankly.
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, April 15, 2008; A15
Hillary "Shot-and-a-Beer" Clinton has given us the perfect illustration of what's so insane about American politics: the philosophical dictum that could be summed up (with apologies to Descartes) as "I seem, therefore I am."
Clinton spent the weekend bashing Barack Obama for not seeming to be enough of a regular guy -- not for any actual deficit of regular-guyness, mind you, but for giving the impression that such a deficit might exist.
The former first lady, whose family has made $109 million since her husband left the White House, then made a show of demonstrating that she's actually just a regular gal. The point wasn't really to convince anyone that she, Bill and Chelsea commute between their two lavish mansions in a five-year-old Ford F-150 pickup with a gun rack and a "Jesus Rocks!" bumper sticker. Her aim was to prove to the nation -- or at least to Democratic primary voters in Pennsylvania and Indiana -- that she's better at feigning regularness than Obama.
This is how we pick a president?
This whole sideshow began when Obama committed what she portrayed as the apparently unforgivable sin of trying to describe the resentment felt by some working-class Americans, venturing that "they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
This seemed "elitist . . . and, frankly, patronizing," Clinton charged. Never mind whether it actually was elitist, patronizing or, for that matter, inaccurate. No, the eagle-eyed Clinton took dead aim at a different target: the impression Obama might have given.
As if to show her opponent how it ought to be done, Clinton -- a longtime advocate of gun control laws -- spoke of her lifelong reverence for the Second Amendment. "You know, my dad took me out behind the cottage my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton and taught me how to shoot when I was a little girl," she said. "Some people have continued to teach their children and their grandchildren. It's part of culture, it's part of a way of life."
Clinton also made a point of telling audiences about her deep religious faith. The topper -- or the chaser -- came at Bronko's Restaurant and Lounge in Crown Point, Ind., where Clinton threw back a shot of Crown Royal whiskey and followed it with a beer.
Clinton bristled, though, when a reporter had the temerity to ask at a news conference when she last attended church or fired a gun. "That is not a relevant question for this debate," she said. "We can answer that some other time. This is about what people feel is being said about them. I went to church on Easter. I mean, so?"
Um, so the issue isn't whether you regularly sit in a church pew or even occasionally go hunting, but whether you can manage to seem like the sort of person who does? I think I need a shot and a beer, too. Just give me whatever the lady's drinking.
Obama has apologized for using the word "bitter" to describe some frustrated voters, but managed to have a bit of fun with Clinton's new persona. "She's talking like she's Annie Oakley," he said, adding that she gives the impression of spending every Sunday in a duck blind.
But I think Clinton is serious at some level. She argued Sunday night that Democratic candidates Al Gore and John Kerry lost because they seemed elitist -- not because they actually were, but because they seemed to be. In reality, she said, they were "good men, and men of faith." So is Obama, she allowed. But they didn't measure up in the seeming department.
As you've guessed, I have a couple of problems with Clinton's seeming-is-being theory of campaigning for the nation's highest elective office. First, given the urgency and complexity of the problems the next president will face, who's going to think it's a good idea to elect Joe or Josephine Sixpack? I realize that Gore was deemed inferior to George W. Bush on the "Who would you rather have a near beer with?" question, but the 2000 election took place at a time of peace and prosperity. Oh, and Gore did win the popular vote.
Here's my other problem: Clinton's argument assumes that "regular" is a synonym for "unsophisticated" -- that to communicate with voters who have not attained a certain income or education level, a candidate has to put on an elaborate disguise and speak in words of one syllable.
So tell me: Who's being patronizing?
First off, I love watching golf on TV because you can accomplish a lot of other things while it is on. Very relaxing white noise that is interrupted by moments of excitement. Doesn't look like Tiger is playing well enough to win, but you never know...
This isn't your mother's Rilo Kiley, hell it probably isn't even your younger hip sister's Rilo either. It seems that this wasn't anyone's Rilo and the critics and fans are ignoring a strong album just because the band decided to do something different. They added in some country, polka, folk, and humor and the culturally aware masses didn't seem to appreciate it. I really hate when we don't let bands branch out and try some new things, just because we aren't done with the type of greatness they have achieved on other albums. This album is great and yes sometimes the experimentation goes a bit too far, but Jenny Lewis and the gang are growing and if we don't let them I think they will get bored and break up and then what? Let them do this, I'm sure they will come full circle eventually, but in the meantime enjoy the growth, especially on songs like the title track and Dreamworld.
to sound like some cross between The Smiths and Joy Division, but in mind they are set apart. I'm not sure how, maybe because they didn't try to be cute and did a straight ahead cover of Beck's Sunday Sun or maybe its because they aren't afraid to just rock out and could care less if they have the right sound or not. Maybe its because I can only take so much of the Killers' shit eating grin or Interpol's dour, sour, depressing mood and it is refreshing to hear a band who knows that you don't need a look or a mood to make good music. All this could be true or it could be that I like the name of their band. Whatever it is, I think they are good.
Imagine that the Talking Heads had stayed together, they might have put out Okkervil River's The Stage Names. Sticking with the general theme this year of quirkiness, this band is very quirky, but really good. The songs start off with a little bit of a kick and before you know it is kicking your ass all over the place. Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe is the best track on the album and might be the single of the year. This band isn't afraid to throw in a little straight up rock in their weirdness and it works. Don't let the freaky album art or name fool you, this is a rock band and they are willing to put it all out there. They can also change it up with some slow moving lyrics that make you think and yearn for another place.
Sky, but then again I also love the Grateful Dead and if you don't love the Dead, you probably were a little disappointed. I think I really loved this album because one of my favorite Dead songs is Wharf Rat. Jerry Garcia's vocals on that song is moving, and if done right can bring on tears. But the song itself is slow moving jam, not the freight train running variety, this is the Wilco album in a nutshell. Jeff Tweedy does his best Jerry impersonation on the vocals and on the guitar work. For the most part it works and I feel like this album was made just for me. Now, listening to this album requires patience and if you are looking for instant gratification its not gonna happen. I think this album is the hangover to Wilco's last album, A Ghost is Born which was Tweedy's drug album and while the album doesn't feel like a hangover to me, it is something to listen to when you have one.
Iron and Wine has become the artists that can do no wrong for me. Luckily, Sam Beam, continues to evolve while still remaining true to his style. A year or so ago Iron and Wine teamed with the band Calexico and released a great EP. They have stayed together for The Shepherd's Dog. If you are new to Iron and Wine I would start with one of his earlier albums, because this one is different. It is funky and creepily wonderful. I love the way the music sounds so deconstructed and then pulls itself together at places. Sometimes it sounds like Tom Waits' later stuff, while still holding on to the quiet power that Iron and Wind is really good at creating.
Apple ad or did I love the Apple ad because of the song? This is the question every year as Apple does a great job in this marriage. Feist's The Reminder served as this year's test with the the little ditty, 1234. I took the plunge and bought the album, and it turns out that I would have probably liked the album in spite of my seeing the ad first. Some of the songs are just okay, but most are great. Their quirky, but not too quirky to keep you at arms length, seems to be a common theme in the music of this year. I would love to hear her voice not so electronically enhanced, because it seems so sweet that by itself it would have more of a direct path to my heart, but it still gets there in a roundabout way.
This album's main purpose was to get me to buy it. Everything lined up perfectly that I would buy it without hearing a note, a vocal or a song title. Robert Plant? Check. Alison Krauss? Check. Produced by T Bone Burnett? Check. $9.99? Check. I know that my expectations were high because on first listen I didn't spontaneously explode. So I needed a few listens. Each one it gets better and better. What a great idea to put these two together, there voices sound so great together it almost makes up for the ill conceived Page/Coverdale album that Plant's old running mate produced so many years ago. Now, if you don't like Krauss, I wouldn't recommend the album, the music is definitely on her side of things. If you are a fan of both, like I am, you probably already own the album, you really had no choice.
remember why or how I came to want an album by that particular artists. I buy so much music, that I might have already said this in this same post. However, this method does produce some great buys every once in awhile. Minus the Bear's Planet of Ice is a perfect example. Sounding something like a cross between Coldplay, Green Day and an emo band you have never heard of, the music is great. High, soft vocals almost enveloped by a wall of music, you want to get lost in it and sometimes you forget their are vocals, the album title really describes the sound so well. Great band...love the album cover too.
I saw Glen Hansard's band The Frames open for Damien Rice and really liked them. They went down as a that I wanted to learn more about, but never did for various reasons. When I first heard of this movie I wanted to see it, but never got around to it. While watching it, I paused the movie and downloaded the soundtrack. First, go see this move, if you love music you will love the movie. Next, buy the soundtrack, get in your car and sing like you are as Irish as Glen. Sweet wonderful words matched with music that evokes true emotion, go buy this album today.
hard time disagreeing with them, especially when one of my top albums is The Everybodyfields' Nothing is Okay. It seems to me that really sad music is often the most powerful. Sadness and depression produce a whole world of powerful emotions that are often so overcoming we tend to get swept up in them. I want music to sweep me away, so I guess I will always listen to "sad" music. This album is so wonderful, it might be my top album of the year. It is mellow yet touching, earnest and true. With sweet harmonies and music that just moves so slowly and smoothly, you can't help but like it. This is one album that I discovered on another list, I'm so glad I did.
I think that Jens Lekman is the bizarro world version of Morrisey. His lyrics are similar in style and setup, his music sounds like Morrisey, but the difference is, well, he's happy. The music is so damn upbeat, even though the lyrics sometimes don't match, you can't help but to tap your feet. This album isn't for everyone and one look at the cover might make you want to think twice about giving it a listen, but trust me, it is worth a try. The poppy tracks put you in a great mood and the lyrics will bring a wry smile on your face. Now at least Morrisey has some kind of sunny yin to his cloudy yang.
don't think the Arcade Fire is the savior of music that some are claiming they are, I think they are this generation's Bowie and that is high praise enough in my book. Bowie filled and continues to fill a void in rock that we need. In that same sense so does Fire, willing to come out with music that stands on its own two feet, alone, in the middle of nowhere. The beats are great, the lyrics are cool, but sometimes I feel a little tired, because every song is soooo big and overpowering. But again, we need that, subtlety is overrated most of the time and we need Arcade Fire to remind us of that.
So...if I was pushed enough I might admit that Springsteen's Magic was my favorite album of the past year. However, when I first bought the album, I don't know if I would have said it was the best. Then I went to my first Boss concert and the album gained new meaning. I have been a lifelong Springsteen fan and always wanted to see him live, but never got the chance. When you go to a Bruce concert he plays everything off of his new album, plus most of your favs. After gaining more interest in the album because of the concert, I listened again and again and came to the realization that the album was great. Leave it to Bruce to tap into the feeling of uncertainty and anger currently alive in this country. The songs are rocking and the lyrics are striking. From the first release, Radio Nowhere which makes you want to drive with your top down, to the obvious homage to Brian Wilson, Girls in their Summer Clothes, this is classic Bruce for uncertain times.
With all due respect to Bruce, I've seen the future of rock and its name is Radiohead. Leave it to the this band to not only put out a great, wonderful album, but do it in a way that commented on the whole recording industry paradigm shift that we are currently witnessing. If you don't know the story already, when first released, Radiohead put In Rainbows on their website and said in essence, "Pay what you want, we trust you." I don't recall the justification, but at the time I came up with $5 as a reasonable amount to pay a band of which I have a giant amount of respect. Even after this show of trust to their fans, when the album was officially released the old-fashioned way it still sold very well. Maybe it is just me, but I don't think this story was given nearly enough press and I think it is because major news organizations are tied too close to the hip of old way of delivering music and this scared the shit out of corporate music types. I think Radiohead has set a wonderful precedent for some other bands that are respected. Granted, releasing your own album at whatever cost can only work for a band who doesn't need the money, but these are the same artists that record execs count on to bring home the bacon. While listening to this album and taking into account the context of how and when it was released, I get the same feeling when I put Ok Computer into my car stereo driving home from Union Station in Washington DC when I was interning out there, "This band is not like anything else in the world and I love them, and that makes everything seem right in the universe."
past several Stripes' albums, I think Jack White was trying to establish a general aesthetic that was carefully crafted, planned out as to kick everyone's ass. Then he went and made an album with the Raconteurs and had a lot of fun. With this album I think he thought, "Carefully crafted be damned, I'm just going to have a lot of fun making this album, with the lyrics, with the instrumentation, everything." So, if you didn't like this one, write it off as Jack just have some fun at your expense and know that the carefully crafted ass kicking will continue with the next one. For my part, I liked it and think Jack White having some fun is still better than a lot of other stuff.
bought before I saw the movie, in fact in both cases I haven't seen either yet. I'm Not There is weird bio pic of Bob Dylan with a bunch of different actors taking a crack at being Bob. The soundtrack is the same idea, give a bunch of artists a chance to tackle the Dylan catalogue. Some like Jeff Tweedy and Cat Power do their best Dylan impersonation, while others give a completely different take on the songs. Stephen Malkmus and the Million Dollar Bashers do a wonderfully bluesy Ballad of a Thin Man that makes you feel like you are in the best blues bar in Chicago. If you like Dylan, you will like this album.
Josh Ritter is not only Dylan-esque, it might be the only thing we have right now that is equivalent to him. I think it is a sad commentary that Ritter doesn't get more play, further proof that mainstream music is in the crapper. This album is more folksy than other Ritter I own, which is saying something because Ritter is at heart a folk singer. The thing that is weird that it is folksy while still being rocking. In my opinion, this album is not as strong as his other work, but still better than most of the other stuff out there. If you are new to his work, I would go back in time and get to this one later.
Of Montreal sometimes hurts my ears and not in a good way. This album took some work on my part, but sometimes that makes them all the more rewarding. If nothing else, it has two things going for it, a great title, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destoyer? and a great track in Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse. This band doesn't try to tone down its eccentricities, and sometimes it is hard to get past them, but if you are willing to play along, the album is great. One song will make you want to hit the next button, while another one will make you want to put the song on repeat. Any album that can achieve that much dichotomy is an achievement in my book.
The third of three highly anticipated albums of 2007. It really sucks when anticipation weighs the album down so much that it will never really live up to them. All this being said, on its own merits, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is a great album. Spoon doesn't change their sound or try something different, it is more of the same, but same goodness. I love Don't You Evah and Eddie's Ragga. If haven't like Spoon in the past, this isn't going to win you over, but if you are a fan, you will love it.
Every time I hear a song from Beirut, I feel like I should be watching a really hip foreign language film; so it is really cool to put on your headphones when listening to The Flying Club Cup and walk around like you are in a foreign film. This band's sound is epic, pretentious, and really fun. Nonsensical lyrics, loops upon loops, different sounds blended together for a really fun experience. Beirut has the tendency to sometimes go to far and they usually lose me when they do, but when they don't stray to far off the path, they put together some really cool songs.
I bought The Sea and Cake's Everybody awhile ago, so I'm struggling to remember why it is good, but according to my Itunes ranking, it is at least a 4 star album. In listening to it again, it strikes me as one of those albums that has such a subtle sound, it doesn't stay with you. This doesn't mean it isn't any good. This band is like Coldplay if they were a bunch of heroin addicts. Think poppy Sonic Youth. However, a very good listen if you like really low key rock that makes you tap your feet.
Across the Universe is a soundtrack for a movie that I really wanted to see when it came out, but never could due to its limited release and just not going to the movie theater, ever. I'm excited that it is coming out on blu-ray very soon, as I have decided that this is the best way to watch a movie anyway. The soundtrack is very good. Great takes on some classics. This is as close as a Beatles "musical" we will ever get. The real gems aren't Eddie Izzard and Bono, but the songs by the non artists cast members. Jim Sturgess's Girl is beautiful and Evan Rachel Wood's Blackbird is very good and the Hey Jude is wonderful. If you like the Beatles, get 
this album, if nothing else it is an excuse to have more Beatles music.
I've seen Andrew Bird in concert, he opened up for Ani DiFranco once. Very interesting artist. When I saw him, the music was just too weird for my taste, but not by much I almost bought an album then. This album (and a little disclaimer, one of the reasons that this list is a little late is that I love the end of the year, so I can check out the major critic lists, see what is out there and then make my own determinations. That being the case, some of these albums I am still listening to, so this is a judgment of what I have heard so far. This album is a perfect example) so far seems much more accessible than the Bird I heard a few years ago. The music is back over the line so it isn't too weird for me. Great voice, check out the track Scythian Empires.
When I look at Amy Winehouse's cover to Back to Black I can't help but feel a little sad. Another artist who stirs up the debate, "Is she brilliant because she's crazy or is she crazy because she's brilliant?" The pictures and stories that have materialized in the past year make me hope that she doesn't die. It takes the the perfect artist to get me out of my usual doldrum of alternative/indie rock, jazz, folk, etc. listening mode. Winehouse did. (I actually took my wife's copy.) The lyrics are clever, the music is bumping and her voice is killer. The best songs are the ones you've heard, including the ridiculously ironic, Rehab.
Dinosaur jr. is a band that if I better musical taste when I was younger I would have probably known more about them and at this point would own all of their albums. In this universe however, I always kinda, sorta knew they existed and they were in my consciousness at the same time they broke through the noise of all the crap that myself and the general public were listening to. Its great that we live in the age where good bands can have multiple rebirths and give us a better chance at appreciating them, i.e. The Pixies. Dinosaur jr. is a perfect example of this. Their music is essentially the same as it always was, but changed enough. Good album, worth the trip down memory lane.
If I was keeping track and ranking these albums, The National's Boxer might be at the top. When this album came out, there were many good reviews, but I stayed away. I don't have any good reasons, but from the descriptions I heard, it didn't sound like my cup o' tea. I finally gave in as I saw it on more and more critic's list that I admire and respect. I gave it a listen and instantly fell in love. This album is hauntingly good. I love how it creates a certain mood that just envelops you, comforts you and creeps you out all at the same time. The more I listen, the more I love it.
Being the critical darlings they are, I am really surprised that the New Pornographer's didn't get more press. This album is just as good as their last two and the last two were great. With songs like All the Things that Make Heaven and Earth Go and Failsafe the band has lost nothing. No new ground covered here, which is fine because their sound is so different from other bands, they can keep doing the same thing. Bob Boylen of All Songs Considered remarked that their are a growing number of bands that continue to put out solidly good albums year after year. I would put this band in that category.
