New Yo La Tengo

haha, harsh! i'll be a dissenting voice: this album is awesome.

I'd argue the last time they sounded inspired was "And then nothing ..." They could have called it a day after that and I would have been fine with it. But nothing since then has been terrible, so it's sort of been like one long collection of perfectly fine leftovers from the vaults.

i think the problem is that in a sense their career was building to I Can Hear The Heart Beating, where they showed how they could turn everything under the sun in to Yo La Tengo. They're never going to top it, artistically or commercially, so while they've found little nooks and crannies since, they just don't have ambitions beyond More Soundscapes About Marriage & Simpsons (If Listen Hard For The Words). Their evolution pre-I Can Hear was unpredictable enough that this second half can't help but see a little attrition in the audience.

also, while every later album sounds a little better every time i get around to revisiting it, they really have lost the knack for bubblegum hooks, or don't care about throwing them in

yeah, i am liking this a lot too. after one spin, i'm getting the vibe of a jammy, gauzier, bit more dynamic "Summer Sun". and i love "Summer Sun". on first impression, i am liking it a bit less than Popular Songs, which was much stronger than "I Am Not Afraid..." IMO.

i do miss the requisite electric gtr skronk workout. maybe that's the 11-minute bonus download.

never liked summer sun much (although i loved the plugged-in single version of 'today is the day') but there are always bits in the more recent records that i can get into e.g. 'pass the hatchet'.

i mean yeah they're not going to top painless-through-i can hear the heart but i'll still look forward to new things as long as they don't get too quiet.

they held me through I Am Not Afraid Of Kicking Your Ass For Not Loving Our Albums -- an attempt to do an I Can Feel The Heart sequel -- but I don't love them like a lot of you do, so now that I have to concentrate on filigrees instead of hooks it's like why boher.

"Painful" and "Fakebook" and "And Then Nothing ..." are the only three I absolutely love. "I Can Hear the Heart" and "May I Sing With Me" I pull out occasionally. The rest I don't dig too much as albums, though there's always a song or two.

Starting with May I Sing With Me each record was, "Holy shit...they topped themselves?!"

But things started to level off around I Can Hear The Heart, and Summer Sun made me angry. I'd never been more disappointed in a record by a favorite band. I couldn't even bear to listen to it in one sitting; I had to spread it out over two days. I never heard anything after that until Stupid Things, which is OK, but not enough to make me think they'll be back to their frighteningly risk-taking ways anytime soon.

For me, what hurts most is admitting that I now dread coming across them live. Which is such a weird feeling for a band I generally have no problem with. I just can't take it.

I saw'em in '07 and they were still fine but it was a looooong set

I think my brain is just wired differently now. It used to be when I saw Ira writhe and flail around with his squalling guitar, eyes closed, I'd think it was cool. Now my first thought is man, just play a fucking song. I love the noise drones on "May I Sing With Me." But now they just ... drone.

Xgau.

Why does he call this their quietest and most delicate album or whatever, when "And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out" clearly fills that role? Probably because he forgot it existed.

it's heavily orchestrated, diffident, but it's also yo la tengo. a-

makes it sound like season 9 of his favorite family drama

Why does he call this their quietest and most delicate album or whatever, when "And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out"

srsly

More Soundscapes About Marriage & Simpsons

LOLZ

It used to be when I saw Ira writhe and flail around with his squalling guitar, eyes closed, I'd think it was cool. Now my first thought is man, just play a fucking song.

songist!

Guilty as charged.

I once saw Tony Conrad and Jim O'Rourke play some lame violin drone behind a hung bedsheet for 45 minutes, before I finally left. The next day I got into an argument with David Grubbs about it, and he was all "you just don't get it, man!"

that is very lazy, lame and arrogant. drones on their own are boring as hell. they need a melody or a kind of destination to be good. to draw the listener in. otherwise they are just wanking in front of a public.

You just don't get it, man.

drones: some people like them, some people don't.

the only people over fifty who should use drones are members of the executive branch

I'd be all for assault drones if they played a little melody, like ice cream trucks. Imagine if you're just walking along and then you hear "Turkey in the Straw" coming from some place in the clouds. They wouldn't even need to fire, you'd just drop dead.

I've had enough of drones. I want queens.

not even gonna address the "boring as hell" comment...heh.

last night on jimmy fallon: http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/yo-la-tengo-ohm-1-15-13/1428751/

w/ fred armisen (that guy is everywhere now...) & i believe oneida's kid millions. probably my favorite song on the record, which i am still really digging. the rest of you is crazy!

Bonus jam: http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/yo-la-tengo-ill-be-around-11513/1428773/

first time since elecr-o-pura i've liked a new one on first listen

Really surprises me Ira is already 55. I always thought of my own parents as pretty old...and he's not that far behind. I guess he got a late start, relatively speaking, with his band.

The band will turn 30 next year.

The strings and horns on "Before We Run" makes me think they are slowly turning into Lambchop.

http://sickmouthy.com/2013/01/16/yo-la-tengo-and-then-nothing-turned-itself-inside-out-2000-summer-sun-2003-i-am-not-afraid-of-you-and-i-will-beat-your-ass-2006/

encouraged by that, qualmsley, as electr-o-pura is my fave.

saw Ira & Georgia at the movies the other day (not a Tom Courtenay film)

electr-o-pura's my favorite - first album i heard of theirs, plus so many guitar over distorted keybs rave-ups and songier than painful - but i def see Heart Beating as the peak in the sense of their world becoming all-encompassing. Later albums have some lyrical and orchestral experiments, but that was a refinement of the palette more than an extension of it. It's a good problem to have though - most of their peers, if they even tried to break out of guitar-bass-drums, didn't put their mark on genre experimentation the way YLT did, to the point where there were no more worlds to conquer unless Ira was going to start rapping.

I'm liking this one too, but similar to how I liked those Kinks albums from the 1980s - competent, with a moment or two of genuine inspiration. A song that instantly feels "this one will be good live," etc. etc.

Anyone want to start a "Yo La Tengo albums from the 21st Century POX"?

oh man, i wonder how ira of all people would take an "80s kinks" comparison.

ok, he'd probably take it by showing his "no 80s kinks were great!" mixtape.

YLT different in their members recognizing their own vox limitations and working w/in them beautifully imo, generally avoiding cracked "plaintive" caterwauling.

though in the past i think they did that a bit more.

also the difference between a thrice-divorced guy and his brother saying everything was better before and a married for decades guy and his wife saying they've got some awesome old shit on dvd

difference songwriting-wise, i mean

i was sort of ruminating on my own there w/r/t their place in "indie" but that's also otm w/r/t to the kinks

xp: electro-p-ura is my fave too. i saw them live a little later in berlin on a hot summer night. the place, the knaack club was packed, sweat was running from the walls, we were pretty close to the stage. ira almost melded with his guitar and became a new creature. he coaxed noisy feedback, sweet tunes, psychedelic drones, a whole cosmos of sounds out of the instrument. that night he was god. someone mentioned that he is about 55 today. no wonder that his music really feels insipid and weary these days. the thrill is gone.

^ this is/sounds OTM. Electr-O-Pura is my favorite too, but the show I saw on the Painful tour will be forever etched in my memory. Hearing "Sudden Organ" emerge from the massive feedback/looped wreckage of the "Out The Window" breakdown was like witnessing a sunrise for the first time.

he is about 55 today. no wonder that his music really feels insipid and weary these days

i am going to insert my insipid AARP card in you.

His age is irrelevant, but his knack for making tunes stick isn't.

i think age is relevant, especially in rock music. there are few good albums by people over 60 except maybe some blues men. but let's not get further into this, yo la tengo really should retire by now. otherwise they'll become the rolling stones of indie rock.

dubious comparison on a dozen levels

haha, seriously. making me think of that horrible "Sonic Youth, please break up" article.

because listening to the new one makes one rethink if this kind of hollowness wasn't already incrusted in the old albums which i used to love. there is this nagging doubt coming up. maybe they were never good at all. they should be able to judge themselves and not release stuff which is below their standard. but maybe they aren't. do they need the money? that would be an excuse i could accept.

*hugs*