The New Pornographers were a band that, surprise surprise, I found on a compilation. The first song of theirs I heard was “The Laws Have Changed” and I remember not thinking much of it at first. I liked the tempo and I liked the vocals, but it felt stilted and confusing. But there was something that kept me coming back to the song and after a few more listens I though I needed to hear more of this group.
I grabbed the album this song was on, Electric Version, and popped it in and pretty much felt the same way I did when listening to that first song. But enough tracks, specifically “From Blown Speakers” and “All For Swinging You Around,” had enough to keep me going back to it to let it grow on me and the same thing happened.
I’ve mentioned before that one of the things about certain art, music in particular, works best when it has the combination of repetition/familiarity with the occasional novelty/surprise. When you have this sort of balance to work with, you can slide in one way more than another – do you opt for more surprise or more familiarity? Most opt for just a few new/odd bits, if any. The New Pornographers slide towards more novelty and so it can take some time to have that turn to some level of the familiar.
“The Bleeding Heart Show” is not one of their oddest, though it does have it’s own twist on the building song – a song that starts simple and adds complexity through additional instruments, increasing what the instruments are playing, or increasing the accented beat. This song does it all. By the time you hit the final part where everyone is just wailing on their instruments and vocals it is impressive. It really is a song broken into three parts with each part having its own feel, vocal style, and lyrical changes. Yet, the whole doesn’t feel like three separate songs, but one in incredible piece.
Oh, and Neko Case is in this group? What? Yep, turns out that this is an indie-supergroup made up of folks with their own successful acts.
Music That Matters (To Me) 
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