AC Newman – Get Guilty
Released January 20, 2009
AC (Carl) Newman is known as the man behind The New Pornographers but with his second solo project, Get Guilty, he has thrown down the gauntlet and put everyone on notice that he is a songwriter of Brobdingnagian talent. Something tells me he would like that literary analogy since the first single, “The Palace at 4 A.M.”, is a literary reference to the Donald Barthelme book of the same name.
To be quite honest I didn’t know what to expect of Newman’s solo work. I hadn’t listened to his first CD, “The Slow Wonder”, but I am a New Pornographers fan. This CD isn’t a New Pornographers album at all, its sound makes me think of some of the bands of by-gone eras. I found myself, while listening to “The Heartbreak Rides”, making comparisons to James, one of the best bands to come at the tale end of the Madchester era. Others had me thinking of Yes (Prophets), 10cc, and the Kinks (Submarines of Stockholm, The Changeling (Get Guilty)).
The songs are lush without being over-orchestrated or over-produced. As is popular now in the post-Arcade Fire era, Newman uses instruments not normally heard in pop/rock music, although they are showing up with more frequency, such as accordion, violins, trombones, recorders, baritone sax, mandolin, melodium, and cellos. These fill out the otherwise sparse arrangements. The album was recorded in bits an pieces and this, as is often the case with albums not recorded live off the floor, gives it a colder sound than I like. However, where this might be detrimental to someone else’s music, such as Coldplay where that warmth is necessary to help convey a sense of intimacy, here it is actually an asset. It gives you a sense of separation and distance, something which is quite beneficial as it forces you to actually pay attention to the smart, intelligent lyrics.
The songs are mini stories in themselves. “Thunderbolts” talks about punk kids on a roof throwing thunderbolts, ala Zeus, at people below them. In the opener, “There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve…”, we are seemingly thrust into the middle of a conversation. “There are maybe ten or twelve things I could teach you yet. After that, well I think you are on your own.” We never know what they are but we sure know how he feels about the person this diatribe is aimed at. The song tells of a break-up, long past but still raw, with heartbreaking simplicity. “Once there was a haunted loop of your deep falling tears, a forehead resting on a record shelf amid moving box – stacked. I’m still waiting for the right words”. Then there is “All Of My Days And All Of My Days Off”, written about his wedding, a happy, bubbly tune whose melody sticks with you for days. In “The Heartbreak Rides”, another song about loss, Newman cleverly makes the association between LA and the French word for leaving, allez. “…she said, ‘Let’s Go.’ ‘Allez,’ she cried….’LA!’ she cried”.
All in all this is a gorgeous album full of lush songs and clever lyrics. There are a few anthems, of course, but no gratuitous guitar solos which I am very grateful for. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good guitar solo and am madly in love with guitars themselves, but I don’t like them being used to show off someone’s immense ego…I mean, talent, unnecessarily. And there is a lot of talent on this album, from AC Newman himself to Pamela Quinn on flute. I would list the other musicians but there are too many and suffice it to say that their talents only enhanced the songs. My personal favourites are: “There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve…”; “Prophets”; “Submarines of Stockholm”; “The Changeling (Get Guilty), and “Young Atlantis”.
AC Newman records on Last Gang Records. You can buy “Get Guilty” and all other AC Newman or New Pornographers albums on iTunes. Visit AC Newman on Myspace
There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve by AC Newman
Prophets by AC Newman
Tags: album
