New Pornographers

If rock music is indeed the new pornography (as stated by no less of an authority than Jimmy Swaggart), then the New Pornographers’ sophomore disc Electric Version and its predecessor, Mass Romantic, are the kinds of finds that any sixteen-year-old boy would be crazy-happy to unearth in his dad’s garage. Armed with an inherent understanding of what makes great melodies so great, the New Pornographers seamlessly mix schools of both orchestral and power pop. Just when Carl Newman’s devil-may-care falsetto starts to falter, y’allternative moonlighter Neko Case, who was recently voted Sexiest Babe of Indie Rock on Playboy.com, swoops in to croon a life-affirming hook.