The New Pornographers
“Electric Version”
(Matador)
With such a shocking name like The New Pornographers, you would think this Canadian outfit would be hell bent on sexual debauchery in their music and performance. It’s amazing though when it comes to music, how many people judge a band they’ve never heard before simply by their name.
Though fortunately for The New Pornographers, their reputation and previous album “Mass Romantic” precedes them, and their uncanny ability to create perfectly perplex pop songs. Licensed from their Canadian label Mint Records, Matador had their usual sensibility to add The New Pornographers to their roster of the indie elite. Frontman Carl Newman croons and dresses like “the” Missing Smothers Brother, on some quality blotter!
With sultry song stress Neko Case taking up vocal duties on “Electric Version”; the group takes on a different vibe, with a femme fatale quality. From the self titled opener “Electric Version” to the closing youth anthem, “Miss Teen Wordpower” the thirteen tracks on the album are like the soundtrack for a kid heading off to college (or, attending Community College courses.) “Electric Version” is more than likely going to end up as the most brilliantly overlooked pop album of 2003; and that’s usually the case with a diamond in the rough like The New Pornographers.
