In the last month, there have been new releases by three of my favorite bands: Spoon, Interpol, and New Pornographers. This isn’t a full review of these releases, more like a list of impressions.
Of the three of them, I was most looking forward to New Pornographers, who had hit it out of the park each time at bat for all their prior records. New Pornographers was right up my alley with “complex power pop”: songs that appealed to my appreciation for cool chord changes, intricate melodies, and top-shelf lyrics. Despite all this manufactured complexity, I felt their songs were accessible and enjoyable on almost a spiritual level. I’m a fan. Their new disc, “Challengers,” is aptly named because they’ve dropped some of the accessibility in favor of a more introspective sound. I think they’ve got 7 full-time band members now and a possible reason for this introspection is that there are more points of view to represent. I can’t really find any tune that could be a willing ambassador for “Challengers”. It’s a good record but I guess I was expecting more of the same.
Interpol’s “Our Love To Admire” is also something of a disappointment. Much had been made of the band’s signing with Capitol for this record. They say that corporate sponsorship kills creativity but I don’t think that’s the problem here. I don’t think Capitol had any interest in changing a winning formula. The tunes here are so different from their prior work that I believe it was a conscious decision. Interpol’s older stuff was fresh and powerful. It seemed like they were showing us what rock could be given a little leeway. These new tunes sound less like themselves and more like an entirely different band. I was sad after listening to it a couple times. Oh well.
Spoon’s “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga,” on the other hand, is great. It’s a dumb title, sure, but the tunes are very solid. And it sounds like Spoon, you know? There’s no attempt to redefine anything. No new band members, no forks in the road.
I may be hyper-sensitive to changes of this type: artists wanting to go in new directions. I tend to resent these types of decisions. Frank Black is a good example. Here’s a guy who pioneered power pop to palpable perfection (sorry). But the last few discs he’s been involved with have been real disappointments. Black seems to have jumped on the “alt-country” genre and I just like it less. Not because it’s bad music but just I prefer to hear Frank Black as a rocker.
And when Ween, another favorite of mine, tries to “get serious,” I tune out. Ween has made a name for themselves as keepers of the Frank Zappa flame. Irreverent, sometimes discordant, and downright goofy, but always engaging. But half of their 2000 disc “White Pepper” featured these serious-minded ballads. No thank you. Fortunately, “Quebec” and “Shinola” brought them back!
So hey, what can I tell you. They can’t all be home runs, I suppose.
