Electr-O-Pura

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Around the time Electr-o-pura came out in 1995, American music critics were starting to recognize Yo La Tengo as a standout band. The Hoboken, New Jersey, trio lived up to that newfound billing on this release, fully realizing the fruits of what they had started on Painful. It was there that Yo La stopped thinking of themselves as a three-piece band with guitar, bass, drums, and the occasional keyboards, instead opening up walls of sound, patterns upon patterns over which Ira Kaplan's guitar soars, dives, and spirals. It's amazing that a great pop song ("Tom Courtenay"); a lopey, sleepy ballad ("Pablo and Andrea"); a droney, open-ended jam ("Blue Line Swinger," with which the band closed its shows for years); and a couple of out-and-out freak-outs could all coexist so naturally. Though there are bands that have mastered each one of those aspects better than Yo La had at this point, not one could combine them into one work as sublime as Electr-o-pura. --Randy Silver --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Average customer rating:

The best that is

One of Yo La Tengo's "Twin Peaks"

Perfect psych,drone, whatever.

Drop out for an hour...or five

I'm sorry

Electr-O-Pura
Yo La Tengo
Manufacturer: Matador Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
General | American Alternative | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Noise | Rock | Alternative Styles | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
General | Rock | Styles | Music
Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
General | Alternative Rock | Indie Music | Stores | Music
Indie & Lo Fi | Alternative Rock | Indie Music | Stores | Music
American Alternative | Alternative Rock | Indie Music | Stores | Music
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ASIN: B00000581V
Release Date: 1995-05-02

Tracks:

Decora
Flying Lesson (Hot Chicken #1)
The Hour Grows Late
Tom Courtenay
False Ending
Pablo And Andrea
Paul Is Dead
False Alarm
The Ballad Of Red Buckets
Don't Say A Word (Hot Chicken #2)
(Straight Down To The) Bitter End
My Heart's Reflection
Attack On Love
Blue Line Swinger

Amazon.com essential recording

Around the time Electr-o-pura came out in 1995, American music critics were starting to recognize Yo La Tengo as a standout band. The Hoboken, New Jersey, trio lived up to that newfound billing on this release, fully realizing the fruits of what they had started on Painful. It was there that Yo La stopped thinking of themselves as a three-piece band with guitar, bass, drums, and the occasional keyboards, instead opening up walls of sound, patterns upon patterns over which Ira Kaplan's guitar soars, dives, and spirals. It's amazing that a great pop song ("Tom Courtenay"); a lopey, sleepy ballad ("Pablo and Andrea"); a droney, open-ended jam ("Blue Line Swinger," with which the band closed its shows for years); and a couple of out-and-out freak-outs could all coexist so naturally. Though there are bands that have mastered each one of those aspects better than Yo La had at this point, not one could combine them into one work as sublime as Electr-o-pura. --Randy Silver

Customer Reviews:

The best that is.......2006-06-14

A couple of months ago, a friend of mine lent me the album 'I can hear the heart...' saying "You've just got to hear this album!" I tried listening to it and got bored by the second song and gave up. Then, just a couple of days ago, i purchase my ticket to the Pitchfork music festival (mainly to see Devendra) and notice that yo la tengo's gonna be there, too. I figure what the heck, and borrow all of my friends ylt discs. I put this one on and it blew me away. I listened to the entire thing there in my kitchen without even moving. Then I listened to it again. The best track has gotta be "False alarm", I don't know why all you other reviewers hate it. Just a note about the song times: they got me. When Blue Line Swinger came on I thought "only three more minutes!" and listened to all ten thinking it was only three. Super trippy.

One of Yo La Tengo's "Twin Peaks".......2005-10-21

I wanted to lend my support to this album, which oddly tends to be seen by some critics as a mild misstep between the masterpieces Painful and I Can Hear the Heart. I think it is considerably better than Heart and about equal to Painful. As many of the reviews mention, there's a confidence on this one that allowed YLT to explore the further reaches of the noise that was woven into Painful. And yes, the noise was present on May I Sing With Me and the Evil That Men Do from President, but it was different. Those tacked on vicious feedback-laden guitar solos to songs. Here, the noise is an integral part of the songs themselves, if that makes sense. I could probably never choose between this and Painful, but suffice it to say they would both make it to the proverbial desert island.

The other reason for this review is to help clear up the confusion about the times listed for the songs. As I understand it, they lifted not only the song times, but the little descriptions (i.e., "patterns of sound are my bag right now") from some old, unrelated blues album. So it was essentially a joke, not a mistake. This is no mystery and YLT-philes could probably be more precise, but in essence, that's the reason.

Perfect psych,drone, whatever........2005-01-17

This is one of Yo La Tengo's best record. You still can't really understand what Georgia and Ira and saying half the time through their whispered monotones, but this is really a high point for their music.

There's such a great dense quasi-psychadelic layering here, and the best tracks are those that feature either Georgia or Ira doing their high pitched bop-bop things.

Blue Swinger is just superb, this track really builds such a great tension with Georgia's drums, and her sweet angelic voices really provides the relief.

Drop out for an hour...or five.......2004-02-16

While some albums can grab you and beat you over the head with their brilliance upon first listen, others take more time to appreciate, slowly revealing new details with each listen until you're fully able to grasp their entirety. "Electr-O-Pura," however, is that rare album that manages to do both. The day after getting this album I played it five times in a row straight through, and I've only become more addicted to it since. To say it's like a drug would probably be an understatement: I doubt there's a drug out there with a pull this strong. I thought Sonic Youth were the masters of the guitar-driven noise-rock soundscape, but until you've heard Yo La Tengo you don't know the half of it.

The array of mind-bending guitar sounds that Ira Kaplan creates is nothing short of staggering, but his endless creativity and dizzying technical proficiency are only the beginning of what makes this such a great album. "Electr-O-Pura" is more about texture than anything else, as guitars, voices, and rhythm section intertwine, all the sounds dancing around each other without any ever achieving supremacy. Instead, the elements all coalesce to form some of the most sublime, fascinating sounds that a rock band has ever produced. I know I may not be doing the best job of describing it, but one listen to the jaw-dropping "The Ballad Of Red Buckets" should nicely illustrate what I mean. It's not necessarily the album's best song (more on that later), but I do feel it best exemplifies its overall sound. If that makes sense.

What's perhaps most amazing about this album is that while the songs all hang together in a coherent whole, most of them are simultaneously able to establish their own identities, as Yo La Tengo experiment wildly without ever abandoning their song-oriented approach. The result is a batch of tunes that are readily accessible, instantly memorable and enduring in their appeal.

There are so many classics here it's a daunting task to list them all, but here goes nothing. "Decora" is transcendent in its utter gorgeousness, as Georgia Hubley's ethereal vocals float over a vast expanse of shimmering guitar noise. The following "Flying Lesson (Hot Chicken #1)," by contrast, is darker and harder-edged, with Ira Kaplan's vocals an ominous whisper and the guitars much sparser, at least until the two prolonged freakouts towards the end. Between them, the two songs present a study in the dichotomy between light and dark that would do King Crimson proud.

The forceful, up-tempo "Tom Courtenay" is probably the catchiest offering here, propelled by a head-bobbing hook and some dense, almost metallic riffage. "Paul Is Dead" is a quietly minimal piece, but the "Ooh-Ooh-Ooh's" in the background make it downright mesmerizing. "False Alarm" is a major curveball, imbuing the album's typical noise-rock inclinations with a dirty, bluesy sound complete with organs and distorted, swaggering vocals. "(Straight Down to the) Bitter End" is fast and furious, with snatches of electrifying guitar distortion scratching at the surface as the drums thump along heavily in the background. "My Heart's Reflection" is a woozy, swooning piece whose slow pace and mellow tone only partly conceal its powerful psychotropic properties.

But wait, there's more! Not content just to warp your mind with towering guitar-led onslaughts, the band also go the guiet route with the stripped-down "The Hour Grows Late" and "Don't Say a Word (Hot Chicken #2), which consist of little more than acoustic guitar, hushed vocals, and a smattering of keys. The energy of the album is somewhat muted on these songs to be sure, but it's certainly not absent.

In my humble opinion, though, Yo La Tengo saved the best of "Electr-O-Pura" for last in the form of the nine-minute "Blue Line Swinger," which has quickly become one of my favorite tunes of all time. "Blue Line Swinger" is a frightening juggernaut of a song, starting slowly before building steadily into an epic freakout of earth-shaking proportions. And it only becomes more stunning when Georgia's vocals enter the fray, her childlike innocence serving as the perfect foil for the sonic chaos going on all around her.

I listen to tons of different music, and I must say that I've heard few albums that can boast as broad an appeal as "Electr-O-Pura." Rarely can a band combine a flair for the the esoteric with such flawless pop instincts, but Yo La Tengo pull off the trick with ease. It's unfortunate that marvels of craftsmanship like this one don't come along too often, but I guess that fact just means we should appreciate them more.

I'm sorry.......2004-02-07