#backstairs

#29. The New Pornographers - Backstairs (4:23)

A.C. Newman and his band of Canadian super-friends have proven time and time again that they’re one of the most consistently brilliant groups of the 2000s. Brill Bruisers is their sixth album and yet it’s still chock full of charming moments that give each member space to shine as well as come together (see what I did there?) to become greater than the sum of their parts. The centerpiece of the album is definitely when Neko Case joins A.C. for the song “Backstairs”. The band plunges into an icy cool soundscape which A.C. and Neko use to spin chillingly beautiful harmonies across. While it’s hard to tell if their words here are about feeling frustrated that their band has never quite reached super-star levels of popularity, or that they actually enjoy the ability to create music for their dedicated fans without dealing with the messier trappings of fame, it doesn’t actually matter. The results are breathtaking either way.

Best Moment: The bridge at 1:55 that drops us into a burbling pool of synths, only to be slowly drawn back out again by A.C. and Neko’s voices at 2:50.

Inspired by Budapest