L'arrivée des Nouveaux Pornographes - 'Dancehall Domine' by The New Pornographers

MMS favorites The New Ponographers dropped the album for 'Dancehall Domine' yesterday, and it is a visual feast. Made by the production team of Leblanc + Cudmore, the video is an homage to Clouzot's ill-fated and unfinished L'Enfer (and includes a cameo of the director himself). It also reflects a band flexing its considerable musical muscle, inarguably living up to the their billing as a "supergroup". The music and lyrics are vintage Newman, drawing favorable comparisons to Mass Romantic's 'To Wild Home' or 'The New Face of Zero and One' from Electric Version. The difference here lies in the continuing integration of Newman's niece Kathryn Calder into the heart, soul, and sound of the band. Her sparkling mezzo-soprano serves as the perfect foil to Newman's textured tenor, and the manner in which her harmonies surround his voice recalls her work as a solo artist and in Immaculate Machine. This is the most fully formed and actualized New Pornographers album, in no small part to the the evolving musical permutations of an octet that features 4 strong and unique voices. I don't think I'm going out on much of a limb here when I claim that the New Pornographers might be the leading pop group in North America right now.