reax music magazine :: music + culture » Reviews » The New Pornographers - Challengers

Challengers, the fourth release from Canuck super-group The New Pornographers, doesn’t offer much in the way of surprises.  Headed up by A.C. Newman, the ensemble sticks close to their typical candy-coated neo-pop.  Newman’s distinctive songwriting, one marked with an almost saccharine sensibility, is once again front-and-center on Challengers, but without the almost sing-songy aspects 2005’s Twin Cinema. The opening track “Your Rights Versus Mine,” pulls the listener immediately into familiar territory with Newman’s folk falsetto sweetly crooning daggers over sparse harmonics, before being joined by Neko Case’s beautiful harmony and exploding into the power pop surge we’ve come to expect.  It’s not all power-pop, though. The third track, “Myriad Harbors,” is a lovely departure from the formula, a folk song that’s the perfect showcase for Neko’s ethereal soprano. Fans of the band will be duly pleased and the album may create some new ones as well. – Becca Nelson