September 1987
There are three ways to remember the not-so-distant past. The first is to remember how things actually were, which almost no one does. The second is to remember things the way we assume they must have been, which basically equates to making up plausible stories that (a) don't directly involve us and (b) are potentially true.
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Building a Broken Heart
The New Pornographers, 'Twin Cinema' (Matador)
Brian Eno once surmised that most pop songs don't have backing vocals, but most hit songs do. People don't want to hear soliloquies -- they want to hear a conversation, or imagine themselves as part of one. (When you're playing "Bohemian Rhapsody" in the car, do you sing along with Freddie Mercury?
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Transplants, 'Haunted Cities' (La Salle/Atlantic)
While Transplants' self-titled debut caught the trio at that moment when the third-beer buzz kicks in, resulting in some boozy jollity and spirited yo-bro party chants, the new record seems to have picked up several pints and bong hits later, when shit starts to get grisly.
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Sons and Daughters, 'The Repulsion Box' (Domino)
Sons and Daughters didn't just title their first single "Johnny Cash" -- they somehow channeled Cash's dusty-trailed country folk, despite needing a time machine to examine the world he chronicled.




