The New Pornographers “Mass Romantic” 2000. Limited edition reissue (2021) on red vinyl, Matador Records (originally released on Mint Records). The debut album from the indie “supergroup” that features Neko Case and a bunch of Canadian dudes including founders A.C. Newman (who still was going by Carl when the LP came out and whose songwriting I absolutely adore; he was formerly in Superconductor and Zumpano) and Daniel Bejar (from Destroyer, and if memory serves me from seeing NP several times has or developed severe stage fright and stopped touring with NP awhile back), plus Kurt Dahle (Limblifter), John Collins (The Evaporators) and Blaine Thurier who wasn’t in a band prior but is/was a filmmaker so helped with their videos and played synths. Mass Romantic is excellent indie pop, with lots of complexity while still having a very accessible pop sensibility. The layers of melodies are Beatlesque in quality and the interplay of vocals between Case, Newman and Bejar are stellar. While the record did not chart, it did make several best-of lists for the year/era.

I love the entire album but top picks are the opener/title track “Mass Romantic,” the anthemic-flavored “The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism,” the dense and piano-forward “To Wild Homes,” the Neko-forward “Letter From an Occupant,” and the final track “Breakin’ the Law” which according to Wiki “was taken from [Bejar’s band] Destroyer’s first album We’ll Build Them a Golden Bridge. The group vocals at the end of “Breakin’ the Law” are credited to the Camp Northstar Kids’ Chorus, a reference to the Canadian comedy film Meatballs. The chorus is actually every member of the band singing. Newman stated, ‘I like the fact that people think that it’s a kids’ group … We made ourselves sound like a giant group, but we ended up sounding like little kids. I love the fact that in the Rolling Stone review they mention the chorus of kids. I just think it’s great that people actually believe that, because it’s such a fucking ridiculous thing for a band to do.'”