HOW DOES maximalist power pop address a crumbling world? Which way does a band like the New Pornographers go in the age of Trump? Use their turbocharged melodic ebullience to celebrate the joy left, pivot a little towards punk, plug in fuzz pedals and rail — or go for something a little more moody and introspective? A good deal of the New Pornographers’ 10th studio album, The Former Site Of, has landed on the latter. There are plenty of the electroplated melodies and layered production we have come to expect from the band, though one or two tracks exist in a sort of meditative, mid-tempo no man's land.

The songs began life at bandleader Carl Newman's home studio. ’Having time in my studio really opened things up,’ he explains in the album’s press release. ‘I can get the skeleton of a song together first—just a couple of elements, the key feeling, really as little as possible—before bringing it to the band and running from there.’ His bandmates have contributed to a consistently and enjoyably dense production. Coarse acoustic guitar textures contrast with clean synthesisers, Newman’s wistful tones combine pleasingly with Neko Case’s and Kathryn Calder’s emotive altos, and Charley Drayton’s drumming is never predictable. With its beep-beep synth drive, ‘Pure Sticker Shock’ recalls Erasure’s poppy electronica, while other tracks are reminiscent of the mid-tempo, machine-indie of Bright Eyes’ Digital Ash in a Digital Urn with its pervasive sense of apocalyptic doom. The Former Site Of is also satisfyingly bookended with oblique references to the sinking of the Titanic. Oh, and great hooks abound.