In Stores Now: Get Guilty by A.C. Newman

Distressed portrait of Eugene V. Debs from Harper's Weekly, 1894

Have the great rock songwriters of every generation been so self-deprecating? Maybe hip-hop artists have cornered the market on bravado these days, but I'm always surprised to see songwriters like Carl Newman underestimating their own skills. Carl Newman, the leader of the New Pornographers and former frontman of Zumpano and Superconductor, has also recorded solo albums under the name A.C. Newman. His latest is called Get Guilty, and I think it represents a new kind songwriting for Newman - it may be his best work yet. Although he'd never admit it.

Carl Newman has always downplayed his songwriting ability, chalking up his amazing pop hooks to accident and coincidence, and writing off his lyrics as "placeholders" with words that serve the melody but mean nothing. Disappointingly, he has shrugged off compliments about songs like the great "Sing Me Spanish Techno", saying that its lyric doesn't deserve comment. But Newman's interest in the lyrical side of his writing has increased lately - the songs on Challengers, last year's New Pornographers record, were more lyrically focused. And Get Guilty takes this one step further - it appears to be an album of songs about the writing process.

I could be wrong - maybe that's not what it's about. But the album's opening track, "There Are Maybe 10 or 12..." starts with these lines, "There are maybe 10 or 12 things I could teach you / After that, well I think you're on your own / That wasn't the opening line, it was the tenth or the twelfth / make of that what you will." Newman opens the album by addressing the listener as the songwriter, and this colors the whole listening experience for me. Several of the other songs contain prominent references to "songs", "stories", and "words". "Thunderbolts" seems to be Newman indicting the slipshod songwriting process of his own youth, and "The Palace at 4 AM" clearly references a short story by Donald Barthelme.

For me, this cohesive theme adds another layer to Get Guilty and makes it a more interesting listen. To many listeners, though, Newman's music has always been about the melodies and the hooks, and those are still the big draw. The pace of Get Guilty is a little slower than the early New Pornographers records, but it's a step up from last year's Challengers. As a whole, it is reminiscent of Goin' Through Changes, the second Zumpano record. A stretch of slower songs in the last third makes the album seem more down-tempo than it really is, but this may be a natural consequence of it being a more songwriterly work. But Newman is at his peak on songs like the album's closer, "All My Days and All My Days Off". It features sing-along guest vocals from the Mates of State that blossom into an extended chorus that keeps going and going after the instruments have faded away.

"All of My Days and All of My Days Off" by A.C. Newman