Challengers Blue Island IL

Challengers

The New Pornographers

Matador, 2007

REVIEW BY: Sean McCarthy

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 08/23/2007

Give a New Pornographers album a single, full listen, and you pretty much get the gist of the album. Like the best power pop, The New Pornographers’ have a knack of making insanely catchy and memorable songs with massive riffs.

The output of the individual band members, on the other hand, tends to fall under the ‘slow burner’ category of music. A.C. Newman’s solo album The Slow Wonder and Dan Bejar’s Destroyer albums will most likely take a few listens for a listener to digest all of their quirks.

That’s not to say that The New Pornographers’ albums don’t reward with repeated listens. Unfortunately, like The Replacements and Sugar, if your band specializes in power pop your album output is usually limited to two or three memorable albums. And the New Pornographers are on album number four with Challengers.

The safest route for The New Pornographers would have been to find a nice middle ground between Electric Version and Twin Cinema. But they play it smart by making an album that will definitely not be confused with any of their other ones. And if you like The New Pornographers for their instantly catchiness, brace yourself: Challengers is a slow burner.