The New Pornographers – Brill Bruisers

Brill Bruisers (2014)

B+

1. Brill Bruisers 2. Champions Of Red Wine 3. Fantasy Fools 4. War On The East Coast 5. Backstairs 6. Marching Orders 7. Another Drug Deal Of The Heart 8. Born With A Sound 9. Wide Eyes 10. Dancehall Domine 11. Spidyr 12. Hi-Rise 13. You Tell Me Where

Hello friends! No, I’m not dead of Ebola! Just really busy trying to keep up with the fast paced world of freelance writing and watching 500 episodes of The Clone Wars, even the stupid ones that involve R2-D2 rolling around an intergalactic version of the Utah salt flats with a 6-inch tall slug who talks like Charles Napier in Austin Powers. Anyway, I’ll be back in the regular review routine soon enough, but for now, an update on the New Pornographers, who recently released a pretty great new album that I reviewed over on Slant Magazine when it came out. I gave it 4 stars, which is about a high B+ on the old high school grade scale. I don’t have much to say about it now that I didn’t then, other than “Backstairs” is really fucking good and different for this band. Oh, and “Dancehall Domine” is catchy as balls.

Anyway, I’ll get back to Arcade Fire eventually. I swear, I started working on my Funeral review over two months ago and just haven’t gotten around to finishing it. Will I join the critical consensus and slobber all over its dick? Will I pan it and induce butthurt hipster tears? Or will I be noncommittal and give it a B or something? Stay tuned to find out!