The New Pornographers - The Former Site Of

Carl Newman's power-pop collective return with The Former Site Of, a tenth album full of knotty melodies, sharp wit and the kind of stacked harmonies that lodge in your head for days.

The New Pornographers have spent nearly three decades turning big ideas into tight, hook-packed songs, and their second release for Merge keeps the streak alive. Newman leads a lineup that includes Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins and Todd Fancey, while veteran session drummer Charley Drayton stepped in to lay down the album's drum parts after a change behind the kit.

Three singles paved the way. "Votive" led the charge, "Pure Sticker Shock" followed with a title that sums up modern life in three words, and "Spooky Action" borrows Einstein's famous phrase about quantum weirdness. Deeper in, "Ballad of the Last Payphone" reads like a wry farewell to a vanishing piece of the streetscape, and "Wine Remembers the Water" shows off Newman's gift for lines that sound like riddles and land like confessions.

It's a record about places that change and the people who carry on regardless, wrapped in the band's signature blend of melancholy and sugar. For longtime fans, it's another reminder of why this band remains indie rock's great harmony machine, and for newcomers, a fine place to start.