Q: Best album of the year, so far, probably, off the top of your head?

A: The best album of the year, so far, probably, off the top of my head, is without question the New Pornographers' Challengers. Stereogum has some great behind-the-music coverage of the album, plus two kickass tracks (and a bunch of photos of the band's July 4th performance at NYC's Battery Park).

One of the songs offered is "Myriad Harbor," which has quickly become one of my favorite Daniel Bejar songs ever (GvsB is also a fan). I would link to the lyrics, but they don't seem to exist on the Internet yet, so whatever, here...

MYRIAD HARBOR
written by Daniel Bejar

I took a plane / I took a train
(Who cares? You always end up in the city)
I said to Carl / Look up for once
(See just how the sun sets in the sky)
I said to John / "Do you think the girls here
(...ever wonder how they got so pretty?")
Oh well, I do
Look out upon the myriad harbor (x3)

All the boys with their homemade microphones
(...have very interesting sounds)
All the girls fall into ruin, droppin' out of school, breakin' Daddy's heart
(...just to hang around)
I walked into the local record store and asked for
An American music anthology / It sounds fun
They tore off my skirt (?) and stuck it on the walls at P.S. 1

I took a plane / I took a train
(Who cares? You always end up in the city)
Stranded at Bleecker and Broadway / Looking for something to do
Someone somewhere asked me, "Is there anything in particular I can help you with?"
All I ever wanted help with was you
Look out upon the myriad harbor (x4)

I'd wondered why he was hitting those New York references so hard, since the New Pornographers are Canadian; Scott Stereogum notes the album was recorded partly in Brooklyn, and...

...Well, this is also the NP's New York album. Carl Newman's a Brooklynite now, feels okay talking about the West Village in flames in "Challengers," and even Bejar gets in on the action with the best song on the album, "Myriad Harbour" and its strutting, sexy P.S.1 and Bleeker Avenue namedrops. He's peppered songs with New York in the past -- see "Jackie, Dressed In Cobras," etc. -- but this is the clearest and most addictive...

Newman's biggest New York song, "Unguided," is his longest composition to date. He notes, "It is all about August 2005, everything up in the air, it was very hot, and I was camping out in New York for a week."

(Hey, that sounds eerily like my August '05. Incidentally, the best memory I have from that summer is the day of the Mermaid Parade, which concluded with seeing the New Pornographers play in Prospect Park. Come to think of it, "in turmoil, hot, and semi-homeless" describes pretty much all my experiences with NYC in summer, including last week.)

Wow, I'm really terrible at writing concise blog posts.

One other thing: Of Bejar, Stereogum writes he "always sounds great in this setup, but remains more excellent when given a mile to roam in his solo work." Now, I do love Bejar's Destroyer stuff, but to me, his best work is in these collaborations with Newman, whose predilection for sharp poppy hooks keeps Bejar from drifting too far into art-rock pretension. Newman is sort of the Big Boi to Bejar's Andre 3000 —the Coxon to his Albarn, if you will. The McCartney on weed to his Lennon on acid. DISCUSS. Or just buy the album.

ELSEWHERE: Bryan Ferry reveals bold stance vis a vis the Jews; he is pro-Dylan, anti-Nazi.

Ferry was briefly sort of the Coxon to Brian Eno's Albarn, wasn't he?