This songs starts out fast and never slows down – the driving percussion, heavy with sizzle and loose handclaps, couples with the piano and occasional flute lines to make it almost impossible to stop bobbing your head to the beat.

And that’s just the first part – after a couple of verses, the flute falls downards at 1:08, and some toms kick in for the chorus:

All of the things that go to make heaven and earth are here.
All of the things that go to make heaven and earth.
Put your new weight in gold and see what its worth.
All of the things that go to make heaven and earth are here.
All of the things that go to make heaven and this.
Success was survival and, kid, it still is.

The play between the female and male vocalists makes this part incredibly catchy, and dramatic – the words ‘heaven and earth’, and ‘success was survival’ contribute too.

Also, it’s got a great line in the last verse:

Crashing into horizons, on the brink of…success! Hurrah!
Success which was survival gone too far.

Just in that line, you get a deffinte feel for a story – all they were trying to do is survive, and they somehow ended up with success, not just in survival, but in life.

My all-time favorite album by The New Pornographers is “Twin Cinema” (2005), but “Challengers” (2007), featuring this song, is a close second.