Pitchfork Forkcast: New Music: The New Pornographers: "Myriad Harbour" [MP3/Stream]

New Music: The New Pornographers: "Myriad Harbour" [MP3/Stream]

On the Fourth of July, the New Pornographers played at Manhattan's Battery Park, which faces the New York Harbor. The group's Bejar-penned "Myriad Harbour" would seem to refer to the same body of water-- chalk up the agrammatical construction to Dan Bejar's myriad quirks, and blame Canada for the British spelling. Reining in his flights of fancy compared to his last album with Destroyer, Bejar describes the sights and sounds of New York City: pretty girls, record stores, PS1, NoHo, kids with homemade microphones.

The chunky guitar chords are in the usual New Pornos idiom, held together by a slight lead guitar riff and backed by auspicious-sounding strings, like those on Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks". But the song isn't all detached observation: "All I ever wanted help with was you," Bejar sings, brushing off a sales clerk's query. The line comes as a recognition that what truly defines New York-- or any city-- is not its physical attractions (sorry, tourists), but its people.

MP3: > The New Pornographers: "Myriad Harbour"
[from Challengers; due 8/21/07 on Matador]