The New Pornographers' sixth album, Brill Bruisers, has a name that brings multiple connotations to mind, all of them apt, since band founder A.C. Newman acknowledges liking "titles that, in my mind, could have five different meanings." But you wouldn't steer yourself wrong if you gathered from the name that what you are about to hear will be both brainy and pugilistic. If you could put a face on an album title, this one might be represented by a boxer's mug with a monocle.
A reference to "brilliant bruisers" occurs in what became the title track, "and it was shortening it to 'brill' which made me think of the whole Brill Building connotation," Newman says. "Even though I hesitate to give it any exact meaning, I like the idea that it's bruising songs in the style of the Brill Building," the legendary office tower where the greatest pop songwriters of the 1960s pumped out their classics. "Or, it makes sense as just short for brilliant. The whole idea of being a brilliant bruiser?isn't that what everybody ultimately strives for, or what a person needs to succeed in this world? To be really intelligent and really strong at the same time? It just seemed to match this group of songs somehow."
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A reference to "brilliant bruisers" occurs in what became the title track, "and it was shortening it to 'brill' which made me think of the whole Brill Building connotation," Newman says. "Even though I hesitate to give it any exact meaning, I like the idea that it's bruising songs in the style of the Brill Building," the legendary office tower where the greatest pop songwriters of the 1960s pumped out their classics. "Or, it makes sense as just short for brilliant. The whole idea of being a brilliant bruiser?isn't that what everybody ultimately strives for, or what a person needs to succeed in this world? To be really intelligent and really strong at the same time? It just seemed to match this group of songs somehow."
The New Pornographers' sixth album, Brill Bruisers, has a name that brings multiple connotations to mind, all of them apt, since band founder A.C. Newman acknowledges liking "titles that, in my mind, could have five different meanings." But you wouldn't steer yourself wrong if you gathered from the name that what you are about to hear will be both brainy and pugilistic. If you could put a face on an album title, this one might be represented by a boxer's mug with a monocle.
A reference to "brilliant bruisers" occurs in what became the title track, "and it was shortening it to 'brill' which made me think of the whole Brill Building connotation," Newman says. "Even though I hesitate to give it any exact meaning, I like the idea that it's bruising songs in the style of the Brill Building," the legendary office tower where the greatest pop songwriters of the 1960s pumped out their classics. "Or, it makes sense as just short for brilliant. The whole idea of being a brilliant bruiser?isn't that what everybody ultimately strives for, or what a person needs to succeed in this world? To be really intelligent and really strong at the same time? It just seemed to match this group of songs somehow."
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A reference to "brilliant bruisers" occurs in what became the title track, "and it was shortening it to 'brill' which made me think of the whole Brill Building connotation," Newman says. "Even though I hesitate to give it any exact meaning, I like the idea that it's bruising songs in the style of the Brill Building," the legendary office tower where the greatest pop songwriters of the 1960s pumped out their classics. "Or, it makes sense as just short for brilliant. The whole idea of being a brilliant bruiser?isn't that what everybody ultimately strives for, or what a person needs to succeed in this world? To be really intelligent and really strong at the same time? It just seemed to match this group of songs somehow."
show less
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