BG's Top Ten Albums of 2004 - Number Five

A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder

In a perfect world, right now President-elect Kerry would be announcing his cabinet appointments, the Georgia Bulldogs would be getting ready to play for a national championship and The New Pornographers would release an album every year. This isn't a perfect world, however (not that I need to tell any of you that), so we just have to settle with what life hands us. A.C. Newman's solo outing, The Slow Wonder, is the kind of settling I could get accustomed to. If this man's status as a power pop genius was still in question even after his work on the New Pornographers' Mass Romantic and Electric Version, this album should put that to rest. Newman works more hooks into one song than most bands can get into three, yet they never feel forced or cluttered. "On the Table" and "The Town Halo" don't just rank among the best power pop tunes of the year, but among the best songs of the year, period. And while parts of the album could have been made even better with an appearance by fellow Pornographer Neko Case, her absence is a small price to pay to not have to put up with buzz kill Daniel Bejar. In a perfect world, the Pornographers would give that guy the boot. But we've been down this road already.