Over a quarter-century deep, it would be easy—and potentially lucrative—for The New Pornographers to enter “churn ‘em out” mode, constantly repackaging the elliptical power-pop that fueled their breakout LPs. But to his eternal credit, A.C. Newman is too crafty a songwriter, too much of a tinkerer, to adopt that mindset. Across the band’s catalog, he’s taken detours into stately chamber-pop and motorik Krautrock, constantly opening the hood of his songs and putting a wrench to their engines.

On their ninth LP, 2023’s Continue as a Guest, the Canadian pseudo-supergroup laced some of their dreamiest, most reflective tunes with saxophones and swirling synths. They float around in a similar atmosphere throughout most of their follow-up, The Former Site Of, dropping some of Newman’s most meditative words into beds of acoustic strumming, burbling electronics and unexpected instrumentation.

An immediate highlight arrives early on with “Ballad of the Last Payphone,” an ode to that titular piece of antiquity, with trumpet and pedal steel framing Newman’s melancholy harmony blend opposite Neko Case and Kathryn Calder. The wide-open arrangements emphasize the emotional density of Newman’s poetry: “All ghost and no machine / Like a crow doesn’t know/ That it has wings,” he grumbles on the gorgeous “Wine Remembers the Water.” And this serenity only makes the big rock moments feel well-earned, like on “Votive,” in which a distorted-sounding mandolin sparks a heart-pumping chorus.