A.C. Newman
The New Pornographers' frontman agrees to review the reviews of his new solo album.
As Carl Newman, he’s frontman for the acclaimed Canadian band the New Pornographers. As A.C. Newman, he’s a solo artist who’s just released his second offering, Get Guilty. Over the phone from his home in Vancouver, Newman agreed to “Review the Reviews,” wherein we read excerpts from recent reviews and get the reaction of the reviewed.
“Carl ‘A.C.’ Newman is a pop maximalist of the first order, fond of cramming blissful hooks, outlandish instrumentation, and lyrical non sequiturs into three-minute songs like so many clowns into an overstuffed car.” (Entertainment Weekly)
“That sounds like what I do. That reviewer is a genius! I am guilty of stuffing songs with a lot of detail. It’s hard for me to just play a song and go, ‘Here’s my song. It’s just me singing with an acoustic guitar!’ I always want to stick a tambourine on the off beat, or stick a recorder in the background.”
“Newman’s excitable early work made you want to jump up and gesticulate wildly; Get Guilty is the stuff of awkward middle-school slow dances.” (Boston Phoenix)
“Huhh? I dunno ... I think this reviewer did his best work in 2002. I don’t know why he’s still at it. But I gotta give him credit, he’s still in there doin’ it. He wrote a review of that last Neutral Milk Hotel album and I thought that was pretty good. I remember we all read that and thought he was a guy to watch. But, you know, sometimes it doesn’t pan out.”
“Well, I never thought I’d be calling a Carl Newman-helmed album ‘a grower.’ But here we are: It’s 2009, and I’m stamping that overused critical term on his latest solo effort.” (PrefixMag.com)
“I’ve been getting the ‘grower’ thing recently. It’s a tough one. Do you wanna be the girl that all the guys wanna marry, or do you wanna be the girl that all the guys wanna fuck? I think that’s the difference there. When somebody says a record’s a grower I tend to like that, but of course there’s a subtext that hurts your feelings: ‘What, you didn’t like it immediately?’ But that’s just being a sensitive artist.”
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