The New Pornographers: Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile
20 years in, the beloved Vancouver supergroup still delivers the goods. When Neko Case first takes over the vocal lead and the guitars kick in on this track from an upcoming album, the result is as viscerally thrilling as ever.
By Kerry Doole
The New Pornographers - Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile (Collected Works/Concord Records) When The New Pornographers emerged on the Vancouver scene over 20 years ago as something of a local supergroup, few could have predicted they'd still be going strong in 2019.
That they are, despite many changes in personnel and record labels.
A new album, In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights, is coming Sept. 27, via the band’s own Collected Work Records imprint in partnership with Concord Records, and it's the follow-up to 2017's acclaimed Whiteout Conditions.
The group has developed an immediately recognizable sound, but the strength of the songwriting of A.C. (Carl) Newman has kept it fresh, even over the course of seven albums.
This focus track is a perfect example. It begins with a jaunty rhythm that remains throughout, the male and female vocals alternate and harmonize, and there are enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. When Neko Case first takes over the vocal lead and the guitars kick in, the result is as viscerally thrilling as it was 20 years ago. Sweet stuff.
Newman explains in a press release that “There are so many songs like ‘the something of love’—you know, there’s The Book of Love, The Freeway of Love…Then I thought of ‘falling down the stairs of your love,’ and I thought, that kind of works. I think it has that element of how do you deal with the ideas of love and happiness in this world right now? When current events are stressful, that makes a stress on people’s relationships, and you’re trying to figure out how to be happy in this loving relationship in this world that seems ugly at every turn, which is not as easy as it seems. So I like the metaphor of love as something that you fall down.”
The band tours North America this fall in support of the new record, kicking off the run of dates in Toronto at The Danforth Music Hall, on August 17. Itinerary here
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