The New Pornographers have, for me, long been one of those bands whose musical skills I’ve admired but whose music I’ve never been able to fully embrace because I’ve never been able to get past their particular individual style. Like The Decemberists or, in my high school days, The Connells. They’re all great bands, they’re just too…them.
But this new single from the most recent New Pornographers album, Brill Bruisers, keeps catching me by surprise, in that “wait, who is this, this is awesome” kind of way. “Champions of Red Wine” definitely sounds like The New Pornographers once you know it’s them, but, for me—a self-admited New Pornographers cynic—it proves what the band can accomplish when it reaches for the furthest corners of its collective creativity while keeping a foot or two in their solid song-writing and trademark sound.
Give it a listen below while you can (it’s a third-party link, so best of luck) and then give the album opener a try with the band’s pretty cool interactive embed. The album’s title track is definitely stock New Pornographers in sound, but I feel like “Red Wine” gives me slightly deeper appreciation of the band’s contemporary approach to pop.
You can purchase Brill Bruisers via The New Pornographers site and all the various other usual suspects.
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