The New Pornographers "Electric Version" (20th Anniversary)

Matador Records will celebrate the 20th anniversary of The New Pornographers’ second full-length, Electric Version – first released May 6, 2003 – with a limited-edition opaque blue vinyl reissue out September 22. 

As for the music: no sophomore slumping to be found here. Back then we wrote, “With impossibly huge hooks and an innate understanding of every pop trick in the book, this follow-up to 2000’s breakthrough Mass Romantic is the most exciting pop record we’ve heard in a long while.” For once, tastemakers of the day shared our enthusiasm. “The New Pornographers mix the pop purism of the Beach Boys, the power charge of Cheap Trick and the gentle psychedelia of Syd Barrett,” wrote the New York Times, who labeled Electric Version “Some of the best pop of the year.”