New Pornographers

This Vancouver collective debuted in 2000 with the excellent Mass Romantic, an indie-rock
masterstroke that served up punchy power pop ala the Cars, Todd Rundgren and Big Star.
Electric Version banks on the same combo of perfect harmonies, revved-up guitars and
rinky-dink keyboards, with alt-country chanteuse Neko Case again contributing
clear-as-a-bell vocals that sound great alongside the falsetto swoops and dry cro... More >

Earns its buzz. Tremendous craft, winning enthusiasm. You'll remember every song when it comes on--maybe even when it doesn't, hum hum. But if it has a point beyond whistling at the void, it declines to mention what that point might be. Also, I wish the sparingly deployed Neko Case would abandon her faux-country career. Carl Newman likes a lot of things about British pop that I don't, starting with vocal filters (his seems built-in) and that cute accent (signifying not class but artifice as a virtue). Is this what Zumpano sounds like? Who cares? (Grade: B+)