This year, Matador Records are celebrating the 20th anniversary of The New Pornographers’ second full-length, Electric Version, with a limited edition opaque blue vinyl reissue. As for the music: no sophomore slumping to be found here. Back then Matador 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 their 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” in 2003.

Limited Edition OPAQUE BLUE vinyl produced by Matador Records in 2023.