| Artist | Yo La Tengo |
|---|---|
| Cover | Electr-O-Pura.JPG |
| Released | May 2, 1995 |
| Studio | Alex the Great (Nashville) |
| Genre | Indie rock, noise pop |
| Length | 58:23 |
| Label | Matador |
| Producer | Roger Moutenot |
| Prev year | 1993 |
| Next year | 1996 |
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.
Music
Music critic Jim DeRogatis said Yo La Tengo "came into its psychedelic own" with Electr-O-Pura, describing the sound as “frenetic.”[1]
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;[2] they discovered the name while they were visiting the Museum of Beverage Containers in Nashville while the album was still in production.[3] The hyphens were added as the band's "own editorial comment."[3] Electr-O-Pura was released on May 2, 1995, by the independent record label Matador Records.[4] The song "Tom Courtenay", which is a tribute to the English film star,[5] was released as a single on March 21, 1995.[6]
In the back of the CD case, the songs are deliberately listed with wrong running times to fool listeners.[7] 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."[7] The alternate titles were lifted from a book on the Blues Project.[4]
Critical reception
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."[8]
In 1996, the album was ranked at number 9 in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1995.[9] Spin placed the album at number 11 on their list of the "20 Best Albums of '95".[10]
Mark Deming of AllMusic gave the album three stars and wrote: "Few bands have consistently better ideas than Yo La Tengo, and they make 14 of them work like a charm on Electr-O-Pura."[11]
Personnel
- Yo La Tengo
- Production
- Roger Moutenot – producer
- Brad Jones – recording assistant
- Devin Emke – mixing assistant
- Fred Brockman – recording ("Pablo and Andrea" and "False Alarm")
- Ed Raso – mixing assistant
- Scott Ansell – sequencing
- Greg Calbi – mastering
- Georgia Hubley – design
References
- ^ DeRogatis, Jim (2003). Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock. Hal Leonard. p. 517.
- ^ Norris, Chris (May 17, 1997). "It Takes Three to Tengo". New York. Vol. 30, no. 18. pp. 48–51. Retrieved June 3, 2015.
- ^ Gauger, Soren A. (November 6, 1995). "Yo La Tengo Interview". The Peak. Archived from the original on November 29, 2015. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
- ^ Deming, Mark. "Electr-O-Pura – Yo La Tengo". AllMusic. Archived June 14, 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
- ^ "Yo La Tengo". The Beaver County Times. May 21, 1995. p. 5. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
- ^ "Tom Courtenay [EP] – Yo La Tengo". AllMusic. Archived September 27, 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Mirkin, Steven (April 26, 1995). "Electr-O-Pura". Entertainment Weekly. Archived July 22, 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
- ^ "The 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. February 20, 1996. Archived March 25, 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved June 22, 2014.
- ^ Davis, Erik (January 1996). "20 Best Albums Of '95". Spin. Vol. 11, no. 10. pp. 62–63. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
- ^ "Electr-O-Pura - Yo La Tengo | Album | AllMusic", retrieved 2025-09-01