Sunday, August 30, 2009

THE 100 BEST ALBUMS of 2000-2009:






Twin Cinema (The New Pornographers) (2005):

The Canadian/American super-band’s (A.C Wonder, Neko Case, Dan Bejar, ect.) third album was a great champion of the indie pop-meet-power pop marriage that proves so tricky for so many other bands. The true measure of their growth here is the boisterous hyper-ballads especially when Case assumes vocal authority (the majestic The Bleeding Heart Show and Three or Four. Of course, anyone in collaboration with Bejar has to take a backseat to his madcap brilliance. Jackie, Dressed in Cobras is all his, a fast-tempo romp. He leads the troupe through Broken Breads as well but alongside some taunt guitar work by Kurt Dahle. In fact, the most stunning thing about Twin Cinema is not anything musically achieved but more so the realization that it was no longer an AC Newman-led collective. The strands of this change settle comfortably for now but one can deduce that if they continue to banter power pop around this nicely then they can unearth even more gems.