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Apr 02, 2025 By Mark Redfern Photography by Brian Lutz

The New Pornographers have shared a new song, “Ballad of the Last Payphone,” via a lyric video. It’s also available as a limited 7-inch single to the Vinyl Club tier members of the Substack of the band’s A.C. Newman (aka Carl Newman). It is limited to 250 copies and includes the vinyl exclusive B-side “Ego Death For Beginners.” Michael Arthur animated the lyric video for Ballad of the Last Payphone.” Watch it below.

Newman had this to say about the song in a press release: “This song was inspired by a Raymond Carver story called ‘Fat,’ and tells the story of a person visiting the last payphone in NYC where it currently sits, in the Museum of the City of New York. The narrator doesn’t know why they are so fascinated by it, but to us it should be obvious. Obvious to me, at least.”

The New Pornographers’ last album, Continue as a Guest, came out in 2023 via Merge, their first for the label. Read our review of it here.

Read our 2017 interview with The New Pornographers’ Carl Newman on Whiteout Conditions.

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