Top Ten Albums 2010:

8.  New Pornographers – Together

This past fall, TES played an aftershow for The New Pornos at Stubb’s, which really meant I got to watch the whole show for free. And wow, hearing them do their newest, Together was a beautiful display of what it’s truly like to be a musician. That’s a strange thing to say so let me explain:

I might have a weird desire to peer into the souls of accomplished musicians partly because they are my role models; they DO what I want to do. And the New Pornographers’ Together is a pitch perfect voyeuristic ride into the politics of music, the politics of art.

A.C. Newman and Dan Bejar, two legends who are basically dueling it out on stage in their unique ways, are musical bulldozers on this record. They are in heated competition from song to song (Dan Bejar’s Silver Jenny Dollar alone could take out a few Newman tunes) and we win in the end for being able to witness it and hear it unfold. And hell, they give Neko Case, a musical giant in her own right, a sense of force that, for some reason, she can’t seem to conjure alone (See standout tracks Crash Years, the video is above, and My Shepherd).

Being the “other” Canadian supergroup has done nothing but energize these veterans.  Hopefully this is a sign of a direction that will be taking for a long time. Check out one of my favorite tracks, Valkyrie in the Roller Disco and decide for yourself.