[music] A.C. NEWMAN - The Slow Wonder (Matador) [5 listens]

Carl Newman seems serious enough about his craft that I'm sure this differs somehow from what a new record by his band The New Pornographers would sound like. But except for his co-songwriters' absence I don't know and can't guess. I'm listening a little differently, having learned in recent interviews that Newman writes lyrics for sound as much as sense (I rarely knew what he was getting at, but thought he was trying and failing at something) and that he carries a book of Foucault in some of his press photos (right, it's just a press photo, but I would have expected a copy of Odessey & Oracle and that's it).

Unlike the NPs' albums, though, this has weak spots. I'd happily trade the three weakest songs off Slow Wonder for three songs by Pornographer "secret member" Dan Bejar.