Customer Reviews

Mass Romantic [Remastered]

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First,you'll be captivated by Neko's vocals in "Mass Romantic" and "Letter from an Occupant." Then you'll fall for other high energy songs like "The Body says no" and "The Slow descent into Alcoholism." Eventually you'll realize that the relatively unorthodox tunes like "Execution day" and "The Mary Martin Show" are your favorites.
With over-the-top layering the Mass Romantic Album will remind you of some old perky Brit-pop, but at the same time it is so original and flavorful that your musical palate will be tickled. If you ever enjoyed pop rock, you will be dazzled by this joyous romp from the New Pornographers. Easily one of the best albums of the past few years.

I first heard The New Pornographers on a Matador compilation and was imediately taken by their pop aesthetic. I guess it can be summed as traditional 3 minute upbeat power pop - but it is mixed with a sense of freedom and experimentation and can be quite exclectic at times without being contrived or self indulgent. This makes it quite unique. I would recomened this album to anyone who loves clever catchy guitar pop and is looking for something new to sink their ears into.

How funny, I bought The New Pornographers newest album Twin Cinema first and was immediately hooked and amazed by that sublime cd. So I plunked down my money for their debut album Mass Romantic thinking I'd get more of the same and was underwhelmed. It didn't hit me right off, so I put it away for a while and have since come back to it. While it's not as immediately powerful as Twin Cinema, it's really grown on me and is a very good album in its own right. Mass Romantic is punchy, emotional with a wonderful sense for mining the best of rocks past such as the Beach Boys and The Who while maintaining it's own character. It's structurally simpler, less original and not as well-recorded as Twin Cinema, yet there's a lot to like about this cd. For one thing the wonderful singing and melodies. I find it rewards repeated listenings and is well worth picking up.

OK, this is like one of your parents reviewing the CD, most likely, but this music triggers memories of a lot of old bands that only us old folks remember. I don't care much for most of the overly-sanitized pop-rock of the last few years, but none of it sounds very much like this CD to me. The New Pornographers bring back the pseudo-psychedelic vocal harmonies of late 1960's AM pop music and use it in as original a way as one can when borrowing old ideas and mixing them with 21st century instrumentation and production. If you're old enough that the Vines or Hives evoke the early Kinks or Who, then you're old enough that the New Pornographers may evoke something more similar to a mad blend of the Cowsills, the Mamas and Papas, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, the Beach Boys, the Monkees, and a dozen one-hit wonders.

This CD does remind me of others who have invented new music with skills reminiscent of and perhaps superior to that of the Beatles, but who wound up on the ash heap of music history having gone from a year of respect to being jokes. Does anyone remember The Knack being compared to the Beatles way back when? Hearing this CD reminds me of hearing the early Bangles on a college radio station, back when they were an indie group with the 80's version, to many, of Beatle-esque skill in songwriting, playing, and singing. All that's left now may be "My Sharona" and "Walk Like an Egyptian" and bad VH1 specials, but there's something great about truly skilled pop musicians getting together and recording, whether they're ever appreciated for it or not. So those two bands reminded people of the Beatles at one time. The B-52's and Go-Go's reminded some of mid-1960's surf music, mutated in the new wave years. I can't name a band this CD sounds like - they manage to create their own unique sound even as they shamelessly appropriate sounds from my childhood.

What strikes me about "Mass Romantic" isn't Neko Case's voice, which I find unremarkable, or the lyrics, which are forgettable, but the brilliant use of harmony. The New Pornographers may be in the wrong time and place, but they deserve to be heard as remarkably talented musicians who have created at least one CD of some of the most original derivative music imaginable. Every song is worth listening to here; the music is perfectly and, I imagine, lovingly crafted. They may not be lyricists, but the sounds are as sweet as can be. I'd say it's worth the purchase price, even for a geezer.

Mass Romantic is a great debut album from the New Pornographers, a Vancouver-based indie band. Most of the songwriting comes from the Destroyer's Dan Bejar and Zumpano's Carl Newman. The sound on the album is very power pop and indie rock at the same time. The vocals are sung very catchy and the instruments are used in a fun way, making you want to sing along. The album is noisy, fuzzy, crunchy, and hook-heavy. It gets better with repeated listening. Overall a great album!

i bought this album with a gift certificate, so i pretty much took a chance on it since it really wasn't my own money. when i first popped it into the cd player i can't say i loved it at first listen. it was too synthesized, too "bright". but a few songs really grabbed me. "mass romantic", "my slow descent...", and "letter from an occupant" easily get jammed into your skull, like it or not. after awhile, i couldn't NOT listen to the album. i guess everyone who grew up in the 80's has a little soft spot for new wave, like it or not.

this is perfect pop music. it's like that rare pop song, that no matter how many times it's played on the radio, you still can't get enough of it. but this is a whole album of that song. but be warned, you'll be humming stuff off of this cd for months.

Power Pop that is both worthy of your time and enjoyable throughout. This rereleased version (now on Matador) really is an excellent display of musical arrangements and a fine mix of lyrics with fitting sounds. Dan Bejar and Carl Newman make for strong group leaders while all the bandmembers fill each portion completely and that is the best part, the years it took to finish did not diminish the completed work. Strong debut effort, and a suitable precursor to the acclaimed followup.

From top to bottom this is a fantastic album that should be the guidebook for writing a good song. The melodies are absolutely vicious and each one lays its hooks into you and doesn't let go. If you don't feel compelled to sing along to almost every verse and chorus on Mass Romantic, you must surely be dead!

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.

I was a little hesitant when I was buying this since I'd never heard the group before, but I had heard Neko Case, who I think is awesome. I wasn't disappointed, it is a very good album, and it's rare I want to listen to something twice in a row after 1st hearing it. Get it!!

-JR