Electr-O-Pura

Music critic Jim DeRogatis said Yo La Tengo "came into its psychedelic own" with Electr-O-Pura, describing the sound as “frenetic.”{{Cite book |last=DeRogatis |first=Jim |title=Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock |publisher=Hal Leonard |year=2003 |pages=517}}

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; they discovered the name while they were visiting the Museum of Beverage Containers in Nashville while the album was still in production. The hyphens were added as the band's "own editorial comment." Electr-O-Pura was released on May 2, 1995, by the independent record label Matador Records. The song "Tom Courtenay", which is a tribute to the English film star, was released as a single on March 21, 1995.

In the back of the CD case, the songs are deliberately listed with wrong running times to fool listeners. 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." The alternate titles were lifted from a book on the Blues Project.

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|3|5}}

| rev2 = Chicago Tribune

| rev2score = {{Rating|3.5|4}}

| rev3 = Christgau's Consumer Guide

| rev3score = A

| rev4 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev4score = {{Rating|3|5}}

| rev5 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev5score = A

| rev6 = Pitchfork

| rev6score = 9.1/10

| rev7 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev7score = {{Rating|5|5}}

| rev8 = Select

| rev8score = 4/5

| rev9 = Spin

| rev9score = 9/10

| rev10 = The Village Voice

| rev10score = A−

}}

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."

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

{{Track listing

| extra_column = Vocals

| title1 = Decora

| extra1 = Hubley

| length1 = 3:27

| title2 = Flying Lesson (Hot Chicken #1)

| extra2 = Kaplan

| length2 = 6:42

| title3 = The Hour Grows Late

| extra3 = Kaplan

| length3 = 3:06

| title4 = Tom Courtenay

| extra4 = Kaplan

| length4 = 3:30

| title5 = False Ending

| length5 = 0:56

| title6 = Pablo and Andrea

| extra6 = Hubley

| length6 = 4:16

| title7 = Paul Is Dead

| extra7 = Kaplan

| length7 = 2:26

| title8 = False Alarm

| extra8 = Kaplan

| length8 = 5:28

| title9 = The Ballad of Red Buckets

| extra9 = Kaplan

| length9 = 4:00

| title10 = Don't Say a Word (Hot Chicken #2)

| extra10 = Hubley

| length10 = 3:28

| title11 = (Straight Down to the) Bitter End

| extra11 = Hubley

| length11 = 3:59

| title12 = My Heart's Reflection

| extra12 = Kaplan

| length12 = 6:02

| title13 = Attack on Love

| extra13 = Kaplan

| length13 = 1:52

| title14 = Blue Line Swinger

| extra14 = Hubley

| length14 = 9:19

}}

{{reflist|refs=

{{Cite book |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |chapter=Yo La Tengo |last=Sheffield |first=Rob |author-link=Rob Sheffield |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor-link1=Nathan Brackett |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |date=November 2004 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/896 896–97] |edition=4th |publisher=Fireside Books |isbn=978-0743201698}}

{{Cite book |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |chapter=Yo La Tengo |last=Larkin |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Larkin |date=September 2007 |edition=5th |publisher=Omnibus Press |isbn=978-1846098567}}

{{Cite book |title=Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s |title-link=Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s |chapter=Yo La Tengo: Electr-O-Pura |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau |date=October 2000 |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |isbn=978-0312245603 |chapter-url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=4247 |accessdate=July 21, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305013854/http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=4247 |archive-date=March 5, 2016 |url-status=live}}

{{Cite magazine |title=It Takes Three to Tengo |magazine=New York |last=Norris |first=Chris |date=May 17, 1997 |pages=48–51 |volume=30 |issue=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r-gCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA50 |accessdate=June 3, 2015}}

{{Cite magazine |url=https://ew.com/article/1995/05/26/electr-o-pura/ |title=Electr-O-Pura |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |last=Mirkin |first=Steven |date=April 26, 1995 |accessdate=May 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140722195237/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,297365,00.html |archive-date=July 22, 2014 |url-status=live}}

{{Cite magazine |title=Yo La Tengo: Electr-O-Pura |magazine=Select |last=Morris |first=Mark |date=June 1995 |page=89 |issue=60}}

{{Cite magazine |title=Yo La Tengo: Electr-O-Pura |magazine=Spin |last=Sutton |first=Terri |date=June 1995 |page=100 |volume=11 |issue=3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z1BJTsbRdMEC&pg=PA100 |accessdate=January 1, 2014}}

{{Cite magazine |title=20 Best Albums Of '95 |magazine=Spin |last=Davis |first=Erik |date=January 1996 |pages=62–63 |volume=11 |issue=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UPmf0Kr8tR0C&pg=PA62 |accessdate=July 22, 2014}}

{{Cite news |title=Yo La Tengo |newspaper=The Beaver County Times |date=May 21, 1995 |page=5 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2002&dat=19950521&id=wadUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iDsNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3914,5051497&hl=en |accessdate=July 28, 2015}}

{{Cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1995/07/13/extreme-beauty/ |title=Extreme Beauty |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |last=Kot |first=Greg |author-link=Greg Kot |date=July 13, 1995 |access-date=July 12, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915234803/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1995-07-13/features/9507130400_1_yo-la-tengo-ira-kaplan-star |archive-date=September 15, 2015 |url-status=live}}

{{Cite news |title=The 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll |newspaper=The Village Voice |date=February 20, 1996 |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres95.php |accessdate=June 22, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325144430/http://robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres95.php |archive-date=March 25, 2014 |url-status=live}}

{{Cite news |title=Consumer Guide |newspaper=The Village Voice |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau |date=July 11, 1995 |url=http://robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv695-95.php |accessdate=June 22, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180217082734/http://robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv695-95.php |archive-date=February 17, 2018 |url-status=live}}

{{Cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/tom-courtenay-ep-mw0000600432 |title=Tom Courtenay [EP] – Yo La Tengo |website=AllMusic |accessdate=July 28, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140927031936/http://www.allmusic.com/album/tom-courtenay-ep-mw0000600432 |archive-date=September 27, 2014 |url-status=live}}

{{Cite web |url=http://www.the-peak.ca/1995/11/yo-la-tengo-interview/ |title=Yo La Tengo Interview |website=The Peak |last=Gauger |first=Soren A. |date=November 6, 1995 |accessdate=November 11, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151129114327/http://www.the-peak.ca/1995/11/yo-la-tengo-interview/ |archive-date=November 29, 2015 |url-status=dead}}

{{Cite web |url=http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxi/4.12.96/arts/yolatengo.html |title=This ain't flamenco: Kaplan and Yo La Tengo turn it on |website=The Yale Herald |last=Westlund |first=Josh |date=April 14, 1996 |accessdate=November 29, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130604223357/http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxi/4.12.96/arts/yolatengo.html |archive-date=June 4, 2013 |url-status=dead}}

{{Cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/electr-o-pura-mw0000175130 |title=Electr-O-Pura – Yo La Tengo |last=Deming |first=Mark |website=AllMusic |accessdate=July 22, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614170914/http://www.allmusic.com/album/electr-o-pura-mw0000175130 |archive-date=June 14, 2012 |url-status=live}}

{{Cite web |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/yo-la-tengo-electr-o-pura/ |title=Yo La Tengo: Electr-O-Pura |website=Pitchfork |last=Hogan |first=Marc |date=September 14, 2020 |accessdate=September 14, 2020}}

}}

• {{Discogs master|type=album|32465|name=Electr-O-Pura}}

{{Yo La Tengo}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1995 albums

Category:Albums produced by Roger Moutenot

Category:Matador Records albums

Category:Yo La Tengo albums