One of my favourite bands, The New Pornographers (really, they just do pop music - nothing dirty!) have released a taster of their forthcoming new album, the enticingly named “Challengers” that will hopefully be one of the records of the year, going by their progression through their previous three albums.

As a first taste of the album I must say that its good, however not anything that’s made me go “WOW!” It sounds a lot like AC Newman’s solo stuff, with less pop power, which to me is a shame - I did love the pop tastic moments of “Twin Cinema” such as “The Bleeding Heart Show” and “Sing Me Spanish Techno”, and going by this one track “Challengers” doesn’t have this pop momentum. However, I’m sure it’ll be just as good in other ways… they always are!

News comes via Stereogum

“My Rights versus Yours” is available to download here

Picture is taken from Presta’s flickr stream