You are grinning ear to ear

I often start a post with this phrase, but I'm not sure if it's ever been more true: I had no idea what to expect when I put this CD in the player. The cover of Heaven Is For Easy Girls, as you can see, features The Awkward Stage's Shane Nelken pinning a corsage on a blow-up doll (something tells me that won't go so well). But what came on was this.

The Awkward Stage - The Morons Are Winning.

Great melody, great arrangement, impeccably rhymed lyrics. Seriously, those lyrics are just mind-boggling, despite the seemingly trivial sentiments: "winning year to year"/"grinning ear to ear?" "In your warming breath a swaming death?" Genius.

Nelken is a Canadian indie scene mainstay; he's probably best known for being a member of AC Newman, the solo project from New Pornographer Carl Newman. Heaven Is For Easy Girls was produced by Kurt Dahle, drummer for the New Pornographers, who also plays drums here. I can definitely hear the influences of Nelken's friends. Like the New Pornographers, this is pop music that is much more complicated than it sounds, densely arranged and meticulously written. The lyrics may be less cryptic ("It's not like you to call when skies are blue" is no "Brave under the war, Jessica numbers to the wall"), but they're surely no less doted upon.

Oh, and he's a cremationist.

I haven't given too full a listen, but Heaven Is For Easy Girls is pretty solid so far. It comes out on October 10. So far I don't see a way to pre-order it, but I'll keep my eyes peeled.