album #45

twin cinema (the new pornographers)

One of my favorite albums ever, one of the most important albums I'll ever own. A massive power-pop achievement from my favorite band of my college years. They released their peak album at the peak point of my fandom, at the end of the summer I spent driving through Texas blasting Mass Romantic and Electric Version.

The towering ballads from this album defined the end of that summer and the end of every vacation- "Stacked Crooked" stands as one of the songs I've gone to more often than any other, when I've critically needed a song to overcome me. "The Bleeding Heart Show" is right up there as well- those 'Hey-La's are the holy chants of my highway church. "Twin Cinema," love everything about it, a great opener. "Bones of an Idol," the discovery of that glowing green guitar riff, epic. "Use It," one of the ultimate 'it's time to get up and move and take action' songs. "Jackie Dresssed In Cobras" chases a gorgeous melody right up a tree and then shakes it off a branch back into the verse. "Sing Me Spanish Techno" is a a great pump-you-up track, "Three Or Four" marches to a heavy, ball-swinging beat, "Star Bodies" charges forward and evenutally leaps off a cliff into the stratosphere- that atmospheric electric breakdown in the last minute was, for a certain time, my favorite minute of miusic. And "Streets of Fire" is a lovely, low key, wistful stroll. And then every other song is prety good too.

Holy hell, how did I not choose this for the 'your favorite album ever' project? What a weird oversight on my part. I guess I thought I was over these guys, in the way that one gets 'over' The Beatles after a certain level of exposure. Station To Station might be more compelling at this point, but Twin Cinema, all the drives throughout Austin and workout sessions in my sophomore year dorm, all my last nights in the car before a morning flight= this one really, really counts in a huge way.