A.C, Newman — The Slow Wonder

The Slow Wonder

The Blue Curtain/Scratch

Elizabeth Chorney-Booth (CHARTattack)

06/08/2004 10:35am

Hot damn Carl Newman is a great songwriter!

The Slow Wonder is the first solo album from the deliciously lispy voice behind Zumpano and The New Pornographers and while Newman’s prolific songwriting continues (in the last 10 years he’s released a total of four albums with Zumpano and the Pornographers), it also gives proof that if pressed, Newman can boost his songwriting quantity without compromising the quality.

Drawing from his regular bag of influences (somewhere in between The Zombies and Harry Nilsson), any of these songs could have been donated to one of Newman’s other projects. But through a slightly scaled down production aesthetic (there are still horn flourishes and female back-ups, they’re just less technicolour than The Pornographers’ bursts of glory) he manages to make them his own.

From the scrappy opener "Miracle Drug," to slower numbers like "The Cloud Prayer," The Slow Wonder is a winner all the way.

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