'Together' finds band at its peak

The New Pornographers, "Together" (Matador)It must be fun to attend a recording session with The New Pornographers. Chances are you'll be tossed an instrument and have the time of your life.A.C. Newman's eight-piece outfit (with eight others helping here) is a pop orchestra without the pretension, and "Together" finds them at their peak. The melding of Newman's voice with Neko Case and Kathryn Calder is endlessly inventive, weaving in and out of the nervous-sounding rhythm that is the band's calling card. The first four songs are what the Electric Light Orchestra meant to achieve but never quite did.Pretty good considering it's next to impossible to figure what they're talking about lyrically. We're still looking for the translation for: "Silhouette tell me a tall tale, go, shout it out. Silhouette shout from the top. Sweet talk, sweet talk."Check this out: "Crash Years" isn't about the economic catastrophe - at least we think. The music will seduce you. And we loved the last throwaway line, promising an "open mic."