A subtle, introspective change of pace

Instrumentally spare and suffused with hipster charm, The New Pornographers’ new album Continue as a Guest is the passion project of frontman and creative director A.C. Newman. While previous records have featured a mélange of different styles, Continue as a Guest is tailored much more closely to Newman’s taste – and taste he has. Despite the album’s relative musical simplicity, there’s a subtle depth that grows stronger with each listen, speaking to careful construction by a seasoned producer and songwriter.

The sound of Continue as a Guest is sometimes reminiscent of punk – not in instrumentation or energy level, but in its refusal of needless complexity. Nearly every song has a simple verse-chorus structure, backed by a repeating guitar riff. Rather than becoming grating however, this repetition ensures that the songs are satisfying and digestible with strummed guitar and lispy, lo-fi vocals. The music builds tension slowly, beginning stripped down to acoustic guitar or faint keyboard effects, layering on intensity with each repetition of the riff.

From the groove of bass punctuated by echoey drum beats in “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies” to the repetition of “I can’t stand that you love me” on “Cat and Mouse With the Light,” The New Pornographers don’t have to vary their themes to create emotional impact – with each repetition of a riff or a line, their message grows more insistent, the meaning deeper. Leaning away from the more hooky, pop sound of previous albums, the songs of Continue as a Guest are satisfying, but not exactly catchy. The New Pornographers reject pandering in a different way than most experimental indie – rather than shocking listeners with its noisiness or abstraction, the album is subtle and thoughtful, drawing the audience in and prompting careful listening. 

The album’s penultimate track, “Firework in the Falling Snow,” has a similar sound to 2022’s Asphalt Meadows, Death Cab For Cutie’s tenth studio album. This is an apt comparison – both bands are prominent indie rock artists of the past 20 years, both of their newest albums stripping down their sound to a spare insistence, woven by pulsing bass and strummed guitar. Buckling themselves to simplicity. Peeling back the layers to reveal wistful honesty, Continue as a Guest feels like the product of a band reaching its maturity.

Death Cab for Cutie isn’t the only band brought to mind by Continue as a Guest; there’s a Sufjan Stevens sound to the layering of trilled effects in “Cat and Mouse With the Light:”, and a Nirvana edge to the way the guitar riff slides up and down in “Last and Beautiful”. Sax effects and a disco bassline give a vintage feeling to “Continue as a Guest”, a track that could almost be a muted, hipster take on Chicago. Over a crunch of guitar and skitter of tinny drum machine, the lyrics warn of a “long fadeout”, conveying 21st century panic by way of the 70s. The album’s more conventional indie pop songs, like the opener “Really Really Light,” are good listens, benefitting from the playful interplay of Newman’s vocals and those of female singer Neko Case.

The less conventional tracks, however, were often the standouts. “Angelcover” carries a spy movie suaveness in its gritty guitar and faint siren effect, high pitched notes ringing like alarm bells; “Marie and the Undersea” has a title fit for a Wes Anderson movie, and a sound with just as much indie charm, playing with moments of silence and muted calliope effects, Paul Simon-esque drums and a synthy fadeout. “Bottle Episodes,” in contrast to much of the album, plays with a climbing, meandering melody line that could be something by the Shins, especially when coupled with the abstraction of the lyrics.

Even when playing with other influences, the New Pornographers are very much themselves. On Continue as a Guest, Carl Newman’s creative direction tones the group down to create a grower of an album, buoyed by its cohesive indie sensibilities. Casting off their supergroup identity and settling into a subtle, timely sound, the album serves as an exciting foray into the New Pornographers’ new direction.