A.C. Newman: Get Guilty

Label: Matador

New Pornographer frontman Carl “A.C.” Newman’s second solo album under the A.C. Newman moniker is everything we’ve come to expect from Brooklyn’s favorite Vancouver transplant, and then some. I was listening to his first solo album earlier, 2004’s The Slow Wonder, and I’m pleased to note that Newman seems a lot happier these days, a fact I think we can safely attribute at least in part to his newlywed status (see album closer “All Of My Days and All Of My Days Off”). He’s also letting his guard down a little more and the results are rewarding – Get Guilty’s sound is way less polished than anything he’s done recently with the New Pornographers (no doubt major props are due to producer Phil Palazzolo), and I mean that in the best way possible. And although he’s always been pithier than most, Newman is clearly not resting on his laurels; he continues to grow as a songwriter, and Get Guilty showcases his lyrics to exceptional effect. Whether he’s giving advice in album opener “There Are Maybe Ten or Twelve” (“It is the devil you know/ That will slam the door harder/ Make of that what you will”), talking about bi-speckled gods in “Thunderbolts” (“You don’t need those glasses/ Bou just look so good in them”) or Los Angeles in “The Heartbreak Rides” (“California adds some casual bedlam/ Something in the basic swing of things led them to victimless crimes/ As the heartbreak climbs”) he’s never sounded more prescient. Naturally the trademark power pop hooks are present (“Like a Hitman, Like a Dancer”, “Submarines of Stockholm”), as well as a ballad or two (“Young Atlantis”, “Prophets”). All told these 12 songs are very easy to fall in love with. Listen for guest vocalists Mates of State and Nicole Atkins and Jon Wurster’s (Superchunk/Mountain Goats) rocking beats and assistant engineer Eric Heveron-Smith’s trombone, which sounds especially sublime in the mix. (Emily Mosley)