The New Pornographers – Continue as a Guest

The New Pornographers have released a new album, Continue as a Guest, today via Merge, their first for the label.

Frontman Carl Newman (aka A.C. Newman) had this to say about the single in a press release: “‘Here inside the TV glow of these bottle episodes,’ this one is another ambivalent story about day-to-day life in the pandemic times. I was trying to capture a feeling of being stuck, but you don’t mind being stuck. You’re not sure what to call this life you’re leading. Are you happy? You might be. There should be a word for this.”

Previously they shared the album’s first single, “Really Really Light,” via a music video. “Really Really Light” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its second single, “Angelcover,” also one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its third single, “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies,” which was again one of our Songs of the Week.

The New Pornographers’ last album was 2019’s In the Morse Code of Brake Lights, released via the band’s own Collected Work imprint, in partnership with Concord. After touring for that album finished, Newman began writing the new album at his home in Woodstock, NY. The lineup for this album was Newman, Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins, Todd Fancey, and Joe Seiders, as well as contributions from saxophonist Zach Djanikian. Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz, Sad13) co-wrote the song “Firework in the Falling Snow.”

“The idea of continuing as a guest felt very apropos to the times,” Newman explained. “Feeling out of place in culture, in society—not feeling like a part of any zeitgeist, but happy to be separate and living your simple life, your long fade-out. Find your own little nowhere, find some space to fall apart, continue as a guest.”