Electr-O-Pura

Electr-O-Pura
Studio album by
Yo La Tengo
ReleasedMay 2, 1995
StudioAlex the Great (Nashville)
GenreIndie rock, noise pop
Length58:23
LabelMatador
ProducerRoger Moutenot
Yo La Tengo chronology
Painful
(1993) 		Electr-O-Pura
(1995) 		Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo
(1996)
Singles from Electr-O-Pura
  1. "Tom Courtenay"
    Released: March 21, 1995
  2. "Blue Line Swinger"
    Released: October 1995

Electr-O-Pura is the seventh studio album by American indie rock band Yo La Tengo, released on May 2, 1995, by record label Matador. The album received very positive reviews from music critics.

Recording and release

Electr-O-Pura was recorded at Alex the Great Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, and produced by Roger Moutenot, who recorded the band's previous album, Painful. The band named the album after an extinct soda brand;[1] they discovered the name while they were visiting the Museum of Beverage Containers in Nashville while the album was still in production.[2] The hyphens were added as the band's "own editorial comment."[2] Electr-O-Pura was released on May 2, 1995, by the independent record label Matador Records.[3] The song "Tom Courtenay", which is a tribute to the English film star,[4] was released as a single on March 21, 1995.[5]

In the back of the CD case, the songs are deliberately listed with wrong running times to fool listeners.[6] As singer and guitarist Ira Kaplan explains, "I think sometimes people have a tendency to look at a song and say, 'Oh, it's six minutes long. This is gonna suck. Pop songs should be three minutes.' So we thought we'd say, 'Oh yeah, we agree with you completely', and have people not go into 'Flying Lesson' or 'Blue Line Swinger' already armed to not like this song, and maybe trick them into listening to it once."[6] The alternate titles were lifted from a book on the Blues Project.[3]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
Chicago Tribune[7]
Christgau's Consumer GuideA[8]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[9]
Entertainment WeeklyA[10]
Pitchfork9.1/10[11]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[12]
Select4/5[13]
Spin9/10[14]
The Village VoiceA−[15]

Electr-O-Pura received very positive reviews from music critics. Steven Mirkin, writing for Entertainment Weekly, commented: "Combining homespun charm, critical sophistication, and a fan's enthusiasm, Yo La Tengo sounds like a well-adjusted Velvet Underground. Electr-O-Pura's songs run the gamut from loopy pop to pensive folk to flat-out weird; their unpretentious honesty brings them together into a musically and emotionally satisfying whole."[10]

In 1996, the album was ranked at number 9 in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1995.[16] Similarly, Spin placed the album at number 11 on their list of the "20 Best Albums of '95".[17]

Track listing

No.TitleVocalsLength
1."Decora"Hubley3:27
2."Flying Lesson (Hot Chicken #1)"Kaplan6:42
3."The Hour Grows Late"Kaplan3:06
4."Tom Courtenay"Kaplan3:30
5."False Ending" 0:56
6."Pablo and Andrea"Hubley4:16
7."Paul Is Dead"Kaplan2:26
8."False Alarm"Kaplan5:28
9."The Ballad of Red Buckets"Kaplan4:00
10."Don't Say a Word (Hot Chicken #2)"Hubley3:28
11."(Straight Down to the) Bitter End"Hubley3:59
12."My Heart's Reflection"Kaplan6:02
13."Attack on Love"Kaplan1:52
14."Blue Line Swinger"Hubley9:19

References

  1. ^ Norris, Chris (May 17, 1997). "It Takes Three to Tengo". New York. Vol. 30, no. 18. pp. 48–51. Retrieved June 3, 2015.
  2. ^ a b Gauger, Soren A. (November 6, 1995). "Yo La Tengo Interview". The Peak. Archived from the original on November 29, 2015. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Deming, Mark. "Electr-O-Pura – Yo La Tengo". AllMusic. Archived from the original on June 14, 2012. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
  4. ^ "Yo La Tengo". The Beaver County Times. May 21, 1995. p. 5. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  5. ^ "Tom Courtenay [EP] – Yo La Tengo". AllMusic. Archived from the original on September 27, 2014. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  6. ^ a b Westlund, Josh (April 14, 1996). "This ain't flamenco: Kaplan and Yo La Tengo turn it on". The Yale Herald. Archived from the original on June 4, 2013. Retrieved November 29, 2015.
  7. ^ Kot, Greg (July 13, 1995). "Extreme Beauty". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on September 15, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2016.
  8. ^ Christgau, Robert (October 2000). "Yo La Tengo: Electr-O-Pura". Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0312245603. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  9. ^ Larkin, Colin (September 2007). "Yo La Tengo". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1846098567.
  10. ^ a b Mirkin, Steven (April 26, 1995). "Electr-O-Pura". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on July 22, 2014. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
  11. ^ Hogan, Marc (September 14, 2020). "Yo La Tengo: Electr-O-Pura". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
  12. ^ Sheffield, Rob (November 2004). "Yo La Tengo". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Fireside Books. pp. 896–97. ISBN 978-0743201698.
  13. ^ Morris, Mark (June 1995). "Yo La Tengo: Electr-O-Pura". Select. No. 60. p. 89.
  14. ^ Sutton, Terri (June 1995). "Yo La Tengo: Electr-O-Pura". Spin. Vol. 11, no. 3. p. 100. Retrieved January 1, 2014.
  15. ^ Christgau, Robert (July 11, 1995). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on February 17, 2018. Retrieved June 22, 2014.
  16. ^ "The 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. February 20, 1996. Archived from the original on March 25, 2014. Retrieved June 22, 2014.
  17. ^ Davis, Erik (January 1996). "20 Best Albums Of '95". Spin. Vol. 11, no. 10. pp. 62–63. Retrieved July 22, 2014.