The New Pornographeres

The New Pornographers announce new album, share new song

The New Pornographers recently announced a fall tour with Lady Lamb, making us wonder if they had a new album on the way, and it turns out that they do indeed. It’s called In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights, and due September 27 via Collected Works/Concord. The first single is the very catchy “Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile” which should quickly get you excited to hear the rest. Listen below.

The album was produced by the band’s own A.C. Newman, who says of the new song, “There are so many songs like ‘the something of love’ – you know, there’s ‘The Book of Love’, ‘The Freeway of Love’…Then I thought of ‘falling down the stairs of your love’, and I thought, that kind of works.” He also adds:

I think it has that element of how do you deal with the ideas of love and happiness in this world right now? When current events are stressful, that makes a stress on people’s relationships, and you’re trying to figure out how to be happy in this loving relationship in this world that seems ugly at every turn, which is not as easy as it seems. So I like the metaphor of love as something that you fall down.

And on the new album, he says:

I was about two-thirds of the way through the record when I began to notice that lyrically so much of it was pointing toward car songs. The opening track is “You’ll Need a Backseat Driver”, and that was a metaphor that seemed to be running through other songs, too. Next to the love song, I feel like the car song is one of the most iconic kinds of songs in pop music, from Chuck Berry to the present. There was so much of that throughout it that I started thinking: “Oh, no, there’s too many references to cars on this record!” And then I thought, “No, that’s good—people might think it’s a concept album.

As mentioned, their tour with Lady Lamb hits NYC’s Brooklyn Steel on November 7 (tickets). All dates are listed, with the new song and album tracklist, below.

Tracklist
You’ll Need A Backseat Driver
The Surprise Knock
Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile
Colossus Of Rhodes
Higher Beams
Dreamlike And On The Rush
You Won’t Need Those Where You’re Going
Need Some Giants
Opening Ceremony
One Kind Of Solomon
Leather On The Seat

The New Pornographers – 2019 Tour Dates
Sep 19 – Woodstock, NY – Levon Helm Studios
Sep 27 – Madison, WI – Majestic Theatre ^
Sep 28 – Urbana, IL – Pygmalion Music Festival
Sep 29 – Columbia, MO – Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival
Oct 1 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue ^
Oct 2 – Chicago, IL – Vic Theatre ^
Oct 3 – Detroit, MI – Majestic Theatre ^
Nov 4 – Boston, MA – Royale ^
Nov 5 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club ^
Nov 7 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel ^
Nov 8 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer ^
Nov 10 – Saxapahaw, NC – Haw River Ballroom ^
Nov 11 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel ^
Nov 12 – Atlanta, GA – Buckhead Theatre ^

^ with Lady Lamb