Artist: Yo La Tengo
Title: Popular Songs
Label: Matador
Genre: Indie
Bitrate: 199kbit av.
Time: 01:12:49
Size: 112.26 mb
Rip Date: 2009-09-02
Str Date: 2009-09-08
01. Here To Fall 5:45
02. Avalon Or Someone Very Similar 3:17
03. By Two's 4:29
04. Nothing To Hide 2:46
05. Periodically Triple Or Double 3:53
06. If It's True 2:43
07. I'm On My Way 4:36
08. When It's Dark 3:55
09. All Your Secrets 4:27
10. More Stars Than There Are In Heaven 9:39
11. The Fireside 11:25
12. And The Glitter Is Gone 15:54
Release Notes:
RockÆnÆroll might typically favour the glamorous Live Fast, Die Young
myth, but thereÆs also a lot to be said for longevity and consistency.
Formed in 1984, Hoboken, New JerseyÆs Yo La Tengo perfected their
warmly-eclectic formula with their eighth LP, 1997Æs I Can Hear the
Heart Beating as One, a gleeful tangle of hushed folksong, kraut-rock
drone, punk-rock din and classic pop songcraft, composing a wildly
varied jumble that nevertheless made glorious sense when sequenced
together. Their twelfth and newest release, Popular Songs doesnÆt stray
from that blueprint, but familiarity doesnÆt dull Yo La TengoÆs charms.
While no seismic shift in direction, Popular Songs does find Yo La
Tengo operating on peak form, both tightening the focus of their
songwriting and giving freer rein to their more experimental leanings.
Their Motown vamp, If ItÆs True, is the most enchanting pop song
theyÆve cut yet, with strings stolen from the Four TopsÆ I CanÆt Help
Myself, and seductively sweet boy/girl vocals from drummer Georgia
Hubley and husband/guitarist Ira Kaplan. Similarly, the
harmony-drenched lilt of GeorgiaÆs Avalon or Something Similar is the
kind of sun-dappled jangle-pop a generation of 60s revivalists would
have given their love-beads to have recorded.
While the albumÆs first half demonstrates the groupÆs gift with the
three-minute pop format, itÆs the more excursive second half û three
songs in 36 minutes û that impresses more. Stretching out at length, Yo
La Tengo never meander: the slow build of More Stars Than There Are in
Heaven establishes its affecting, melancholy ache, while the unhurried
tempo of The Fireside is crucial to the songÆs hushed, contemplative
mood. Fifteen-minute noise-improv closer And the Glitter is Gone,
meanwhile, never loses its thread or your attention, thanks to a
hypnotic motorik groove, and some deliciously skronky feedback proving
that few can abuse their guitars as artfully as Ira Kaplan.
Wearing their impassioned knowledge of subterranean pop history on
their sleeves, Yo La TengoÆs gift isnÆt so much their teeming sea of
influences, as the tenderness and invention they apply to them. As
ever, they play æYo La TengoÆ music, and on Popular SongsÆs evidence,
theyÆre only getting better at it.
sire@hush.ai