The New Pornographers release modern, successful 'Brill Bruisers'

The New Pornographers have been members of the indie rock scene since 1999, with bragging rights to their now 15-year music career. And after listening to their newest release, "Brill Bruisers," it's easy to see why. Not to say that the band has aged — in fact, just the opposite: they've come back with a vengeance. The album embodies a new, fantastic energy from The New Pornographers, combining their original, eclectic sound with modern trends. The result is a power-pop record complete with 13 nuanced tracks.

The New Pornographers, a "supergroup" comprised of eight members, is led by vocalists Allan Carl Newman, Dan Bejar and Neko Case, who boast a sound akin to Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah and The Dodos. According to Spin Magazine, Newman has recently been indulging a hunger for music while creating the record, citing songs like Electric Light Orchestra's "Shine a Little Love" (1979) and Tangerine Dream's "Betrayal" (1977) as inspiration. The album is a kind of rejuvenation — a little more electric than "Together" (2010), and much heavier on the synthesizer than "Twin Cinema" (2005). Yet the record holds true to The New Pornographer's standards: hard-to-resist melodies and constant "ooh ooh oohs."

"Brill Bruisers," the band's sixth album to date, explodes like "a grenade" (as Newman's lyrics declare) with the title track's grandiose guitars. The name is perhaps a reference to Manhattan's famous Brill Building, known as the birthplace of many American hits from songwriters like Neil Diamond.

"Champions of Red Wine" highlights Case's lusty voice as she croons the band's characteristically ambiguous lyrics, which tend to leave interpretation up to the listener.

"I am not your love song / Love song gone wrong," Case sings, ending with a string of day-dreamy "li-li-li-li"s, floating off into a psychedelic trance.

"War on the East Coast" carries on this surreal vibe, lacing sci-fi robot noises into a lengthy harmonica solo. And whatever "war" The New Pornographers are singing about, well, they "don't care." A trippy track, "War" captures the record's essence — combining old with new and, somehow, making robots and harmonicas sound pretty good together.

Next, the auto-tuned vocal opener (an atypical feature for the group) on "Backstairs" will be sure to grab your attention. The science fiction-esque track declares there's "another west" we'll find. And here one must wonder — particularly in light of the reference to the industry-famous Brill Building — if that western land could be Los Angeles. Could the band be making a commentary on the music industry as a whole?

"And I came / And I saw / And I ran / And I won," Newman sings in "Backstairs." Could this be celebration of a win over the music industry? Or perhaps The New Pornographers are merely celebrating themselves.

Another part of the album's charm is the varying style between tracks. "Another Drug Deal of the Heart" hits the listener with a slap of confusion. A short track, it's a fun and slightly bizarre account of an organ exchange, ending before you really noticed it began.

"Hi-Rise" might be the album's highpoint — and the most trippy song of the bunch. A bit more stripped down than the others, it features seamless harmonies and brings to mind a beachy, psychedelic daydream of "floating tethered in space" through "experiment[s] in levitation."

If you're not listening carefully, the album may come off as some kind of overly optimistic end-of-the-summer anthem, cheering you on for whatever challenge you've got coming next. And yes, the album may encourage you a little, but for those who listen closely, it's not all fun and games. The album's final track, "You Tell Me Where," ends on a high note, but also leaves us wondering. "I'm not always square" could be a defiant declaration in response to an ex-lover's "s—t talking" — or, again, the antics of the music industry.

One thing The New Pornographers makes clear, however, is that they have set out to challenge "the unknown" as they boasted in the title track of "Challengers" (2007). While "Brill Bruisers" certainly still sounds like The New Pornographers you know and love, its synthesis of vintage and modern-age sound proves a refreshing success.