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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Darned good, February 3, 2005
Not as intense or quirky as their debut, Mass Romantic, Electric Version is a more consistent, fuller sounding, and possibly better version of the New Pornographers. As before, the NPs technique is to use a quadrazillion instruments to layer bouncy rhythm track on top of bouncy rhythm track (the drummer is the closest thing to a lead instrument in this band) beneath insanely catchy melodies (lots of 'em butt-end to butt-end in a subway car) that are wrapped in slightly straining, often sweet, sometimes falsetto harmonies.
What results is something that sounds like simple bubblegum pop from the 60s and 80s....except that it is not simple at all. It's all shimmery brightness on the surface, and dense complexity underneath, with facets that catch the light in different ways. Or maybe it's elegant simplicity on top of blatantly over-the-top production. Whatever! Crazy thing is it works...In Carl Newman's ever busy hands the complexity serves the ebullient feel of the music well, providing a million ways to start and stop momentum, or accent little sections of songs, or just to throw the whole lot into the sea, as at the end of Testament to a Life in Verse when a jaunty call to rebellion against pop mainstreaming is transformed suddenly into a layered, resoundingly beautiful, ringing crescendo of "no, no, no" that could have fallen out of Abbey Road.
The lyrics complicate things further, never quite revealing their explicit meaning while suggesting a combination of satire, dissappointment, and frustration that makes all that musical ebullience sound oddly like a rebel cry. As a result the songs are certainly not simply "sugary goodness," as many have said. Rather they often contain something more akin to angry sarcasm --like on the Laws Have Changed in which Neko wails "Introducing for the first time/ pharoah on the microphone" followed in the next stanza by "Pharoah, all your methods have taught me, is to separate my love from bone." (I don't know exactly what that means, but it feels real wrong.) There's always this tension between the music and the lyrics, between loving this music (as the band clearly does) and questioning the very culture that spawned it and which feeds off it.
So NP concerts are filled with people (me included) screaming madly along with lyrics they barely understand. Carl Newman probably finds this at once funny, and yet oddly perfect. Is pop music really about explicit meaning anyway? Or is it really about feeling and expression? Why should we tell people how to be? Maybe that pop's problem, the problem with all popular culture? Is that why we always get fooled, why we get used so in the end? So many questions...what is there for a sensitive thinking person to do but find release in the the thing itself, the music, with full-throated passion and a wiggle. It's so easy with Newman conducting his manic orchestra and Neko's wail calling you home. That must be the answer.
Or is it? Hmmm...
Well, one thing's certain. Electric Version = Great album.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I thought good pop music was a thing of the past...., June 11, 2003
By A Customer
I'm a Neko Case fan, so when I heard about this side project she was in I had to take a chance. Let me tell you, I'm sure glad I did. Electric Version is a far cry from Neko's alt. country solo albums, which makes it that much more enjoyable and surprising. As soon as you pop this baby in your CD player you are hooked, and it probaly wont come out for a long long time. This is pop music the way it was supposed to be! catchy songs, goofy lyrics, and a killer back beat that gets you instantly hooked. Because the band has three different singers, it keeps each song fresh and new. Neko Case's voice is like a stream roller, it just takes over (even when she is just singing back-up vocals). I highly recomend this album with standout songs like "the laws have changed," "miss teen wordpower," and "july jones." I saw the New Pornographers live last week and I have to say...as good as they are on the album, they are 10 times better live! check them out and you wont be sorry!
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pornographic Pop Perfection, May 7, 2003
This CD rocks right from the moment you put it into your CD player to the moment you take it out (that is if you ever want to take it out, I sure don't want to quite yet). Top-notch songwriting infused with 70's rock/new wave, layers of sweet crunchy guitar, and very distinctive vocal harmonies. Mmmm. Neko Case is a highlight on this record, as always she's fantastic. They're just one fantastic band, certainly a bright spot in the world of pop music today. This album should be blasted out of car windows on a summer day.
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A.C. Newman shares his favorite music with Amazon customers. See all artists' picks on our Music You Should Hear page.
~ New Pornographers
~ New Pornographers
~ New Pornographers
~ A.C. Newman
~ Neko Case
is The New Pornographers' 
