Mass Romantic

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Editorial reviews

An Amazon.ca Canadian Essential
The debut of this Vancouver indie supergroup led by Zumpano's Carl Newman sent critics scrambling to the early '80s and mid '60s for power-pop forebears, and it sent everyone else bouncing down the street and shouting out car windows. In a happily urgent record full of tight harmonies and cryptic storytelling, the high point undeniably remains the great single "Letter from an Occupant," which rides Neko Case's country-crooner voice nearly off the rails. --Tom Nissley

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Customer reviews

review by: LouHobbes date: 2008-05-27 rating:
My Introduction from Classic Rock
For the past five years, all I listened to was classic rock, and then for a moment, classical. So, as you can imagine, all that came from The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Who, etc., bombarded me, and I still went further into the depths of classic rock. In particular, I found that I loved the best of Progressive Rock and Power Pop, but when I thought about making the music industry my career, I realized that I would need to listen to some new music. For me, the easy transition that I was looking for would be with a band that seemed to be both popular in the modern day, as well as power pop. That's where The New Pornographers came in. It's not fair to simply call them power pop, but it seemed to me that it fit the genre close enough. In any case, I downloaded this first album of theirs, and I instantly loved it, or at least parts of it. After listening to it six times since a little more than two months ago, along with all of their other albums, I truly believe that this is their best album by a mile. Everything about this album was new, yet familiar, and I especially loved all of the vocal harmonies that run through the entire album. I can confidently say that this even rivals many of the classic rock albums that I own, and I am glad to have made the step into this era of music.

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review by: whitey63 date: 2008-03-26 rating:
Great Band's Seminal Release
I love power pop and great song writing with something unique in its overall sound quality. That is a lot to ask of pop music these days. This band of talent delivers something relevant, unique, and powerful on a continuum. If you find yourself liking the New Porns, this album is required. Don't get me started on 'Letters to an Occupant', as I see it as one of the greatest pop songs of all time. Lots of related artist material to be had here, but this one is cohesive and outstanding for all situations.

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review by: the q is slient date: 2007-09-11 rating:
Power pop perfection
The indie scene's version of ultimate power pop, this Canadian "supergroup" (quotes added since that label really doesn't make much sense when the artists are all unknown away from the indie collective) manages to build a good variety of different statements and styles, and delivers almost all of them just about perfectly. How this remains overshadowed by the admittedly good but still inferior follow-ups is beyond me: this is some phenomenal stuff.

No one would ever expect a song called "The Slow Descent into Alcoholism" to be so disarmingly charming and infectious. "Jackie" and "The Mary Martin Show" both sound almost exactly like the Beatles during different phases of their career. The Moog-driven "Mystery Hours" sounds like the Stooges or T. Rex aping Weezer. In fact, the closest this album comes to filler material is the cheeky but rather weightless buzz of "To Wild Homes" and the somewhat sluggish, mid-tempo rhythm of closer, "Breakin' the Law"; even then, I wouldn't give them up for anything. Even the occasion when they become a bit too smarmy for their own good is easily forgiven. A truly wonderful album that deserves to be discovered by a wider audience.

Best cuts: "The Slow Descent into Alcoholism," "Mass Romantic," "Letter From an Occupant," "The Mary Martin Show," "Mystery Hours," "Jackie," "Execution Day," "The Fake Headlines," "The Body Says No," "Centre For Holy Wars"

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review by: date: 2007-05-29 rating:
Muddled at times, but still shows talent
"Mass Romantic" took a while to grow on me, and frankly, not all of the songs ever completely won me over. The first few tunes, mind you, are very promising. The bouncy title track, sung awesomely by Neko Case, is irresistible. Following that, "The Fake Headlines" has an earthier sound and lush vocals during the chorus ("Make headlines/Believe them/Come back"); in case you're new to this band, big sweeping vocals are a great characteristic of the New Pornographers' music. "The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism" is also a great jangly pop tune, and Case's background vocals on it are a thing of beauty. The crunchy guitar and vocals on the rocker "Mystery Hours" has elements of the great M's from Chicago (see Future Women), but "descent" might be an apt term to describe the middle and latter portion of this CD, which, despite some good pop sounds, can be a little grating, dull and too amped-up at times. Also, the vocals on some of these songs are a bit overwrought and meshed, unlike on Twin Cinema, where they flowed better, sounded better and the singers in the band seemed to get his or her own song.

With their experimentation in sound, twists and turns within compositions and Brit-like pop leanings, the New Pornographers also share musical characteristics of early Blur (see Modern Life Is Rubbish). And like early Blur, "Mass Romantic" is good but spotty in parts. Plus, it's hard not to compare anything this band does with "Twin Cinema," a classic and brilliant album that would be hard for any band to top. For a debut CD, though, this one is a good, if muddled, start. It's an album that wants to be great -- has the potential to be great -- but just doesn't quite get there.



review by: date: 2007-05-22 rating:
A Real Upbeat Indie Album
This is the my first New Pornographers album and so far I am loving it. It's got the usual indie sort of sound but it's very upbeat and has great energy.

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