"All of This and Nothing" is a series of weekly posts, each about one song I really love, by an artist I haven't featured in the previous This Year, Portions For Foxes, or Better Things series. It alternates between Obscure and Famous songs; feel free to argue either way if you're so inclined. See the introduction for more.
This is the first "Famous" one in this year's series; that will alternate with "Obscure" for the rest of the year. I hope that's not too fiddly or precious.
The New Pornographers are of course a well-known Canadian supergroup - and, in the way of supergroups, they're I think more famous than the individual bands that the various members were part of originally. But then I tend to think no one famous is actually happy about why and how they became famous - that they all think, maybe secretly, that they're famous for the wrong thing. So, in my mind, that's how supergroups work: they're almost as much shackles as wings.
My favorite New Pornographers song is My Rights Versus Yours, from their 2007 record Challengers.
It begins magnificently, which might be one of the reasons I love it - that quick chiming guitar strum, the quiet first verse, with lovely harmonies along the way...and then the rest of the band drops in, chugging along and building as the song goes on.
It's probably about a divorce, but it's the kind of song where the words are complex and allusive - allowing a listener to make up their own story if they want to.
Courts knew this and nothing more
Now it's my rights versus yours
That's the way of life, isn't it? What's yours, what's mine, how they conflict - what we can get out of it, how we can negotiate or fight through that.
The truth in one free afternoon
A new empire in rags
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