New Yo La Tengo

xp yes the cover is terrible, they shoulda gone with the vaguely Green River vibe of the back

New album is my favorite since Fade (underrated record), but I'll say what I say about every YLT album since ICHTHBAO: no one buys Yo La Tengo records for new age drones, free jazz, or lengthy psych jams. This is not the band's strength, and there are a zillion bands that do it better. Live, these excursions can be amazing and transcendent, but on record they are almost invariably a major snooze and they make the average YLT album about 30 minutes longer than it needs to be

then why do people buy YLT records?

So is this record in the same vein as 'Nothing'?That record and their "By The Time It Gets Dark" cover are what's stood the test of time for me as someone with generally less than no interest in indie rock. So I think I might be in it for the new age drones, etc.

There are songs on Nothing. Can't remember if there were any songs on this one.

The middle stretch -- the quietest -- is the most memorable.

then why do people buy YLT records?

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, March 17, 2018 12:57 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I assume for more songs like "Big Day Coming" and less for songs like "Night Falls on Hoboken." Is this not true?

You're digging a hole. Obviously fun songs are fun but artists can express themselves however they'd like.

Well, of course. And I think YLT's versatility is one of their greatest attributes. I just don't think anyone going to see them is dying to hear "The Evil That Men Do," for instance.

Listening again this morning. If your shit is And Then Nothing...you'll love this one

"Ashes" is a jam

And Then Nothing is so pretty and atmospheric, but there are also several truly great songs. There may be great songs on this one, but it mostly feels like just atmosphere to me, like listening to air. Which can be cool, but only in the right context.

Are you kidding me — I buy Yo La Tengo records for new age drones, free jazz and lengthy psych jams.

For a while my fave was May I Sing With Me, which may have the best of all of those. Well, maybe not free jazz. And songs, too!

Listening to Fade right now, I think it's a better brand of boring than the new one.

Yeah, the strings and horns at the end... this is the stuff.

whoa is there something like "Night Falls on Hoboken" on the new one?

The entire middle stretch.

Are you kidding me — I buy Yo La Tengo records for new age drones, free jazz and lengthy psych jams.

― tylerw, Saturday, March 17, 2018 10:49 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^^^

i really want to like the middle stretch. "night falls on hoboken" is one of my favorite YLT songs.

i do like the closing song of that ambient center a lot, "above the sound". it reminds me of their Sounds of the Sounds of Science album from 2001/2, which is kind of my benchmark for how good instrumental YLT can be. and i love how it introduces the vocals back to the mix. it's natural to place the ambient songs all at the end (like "hoboken"), because it's so hard to work your way back to vox afterward. but they pull it off with "above the sound".

but the 11 minutes before that doesn't really resonate with me. i still can't hear "dream dream away" as anything but someone idly working through the Free Fallin' chords. "shortwave" is the most straight up ambient that i've ever heard YLT, but i'm not sure there's much there.

Painful was their peak imo

Ok, the argument and comparisons against this one have convinced me to buy my first YLT album in a decade+.

I think my second favorite thing by them, as time passes, is that 'Sounds of the Sounds of Science' documentary soundtrack. Actually, since they're great at covers, they should do a full-album cover of Sven Libaek's 'Inner Space'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfBnl7SUfKQ

"What Chance Have I Got" emerges well from the haze of the middle stretch, which my attention this time couldn't handle.

hmmmm https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/16/yo-la-tengo-on-their-greatest-hits-maybe-no-one-else-is-listening

i still can't hear "dream dream away" as anything but someone idly working through the Free Fallin' chords

can't unhear this now

Are you kidding me — I buy Yo La Tengo records for new age drones, free jazz and lengthy psych jams.

― tylerw, Saturday, March 17, 2018 3:49 PM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just can't imagine a person going "you know what I'm in the mood for? Some droney drifty ambient. Let's see...Tangerine Dream? Nope. Stars of the Lid? Nope. Oh HERE WE GO it's the new YO LA TENGO. Bingo!"

well, now you can imagine it

I buy yo la tengo albums for all of the above. Although tbh I wasn't that into atntiio or summer sun or the 1st one. I probably would go along with painful and electro-pura as best. I love blue line swinger and that's quite long iirc

I'm enjoying this quite a lot, the atmospherics are really lovely even though the songs don't really stand out, though Here You Are is a highlight. It holds together really well as an album, the sequencing is excellent. It kinda reminds me of Talk Talk in places.

I don't think it's as good as Fade (which is excellent and underrated) but certainly better than Popular Songs as far as their recent-ish albums go. I'm glad they can still manage to find new variations on their sound, it feels much more free-form than their previous quiet albums.

Fade is definitely excellent and underrated

Is it? It got properly rated at the time (Pitchfork and Christgau loved it)

Maybe "undeservedly forgotten" more than "underrated" then, but that's inevitable with any band with a big discography. A few are bound to fall through the cracks

Assembled and augmented by McNew from a trove of experiments and works-in-progress...

Did not know this about the new record.

why people buy YLT albums & what they're looking for: this is why I love I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass the most. Bookended by two amazing stone jams, the first funky, the second desperate and soaring. And in between, a diversity of material similar to The White Album: beautiful ballads like I Feel Like Going Home, Black Flowers, The Weakest Part... genre experiments like The Race is On Again and Sometimes I Don't Get You, and killer pop songs like Beanbag Chair and Mr. Tough.

was behind ira in a food line last night, forgot to tell him to lose the noise jams

you nutters

This record is pretty much a YLT record as one could expect and I'm having a hard time understanding the direction of this thread.

This band - they’re good but they don’t have the performance or songwriting chops to last 10 + albums, jeez.

I liked it: https://www.spin.com/2018/03/yo-la-tengo-theres-a-riot-going-on-review/

calsnores

― mookieproof, Tuesday, February 5, 2013 9:32 PM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is why I love I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass the most.

― flappy bird, Monday, March 19, 2018 9:03 AM (five days ago)

lol!

Really? You’re going to put them in the same league as Steely Dan or something? What a ducking joke

I feel like most ppl [not some of the ppl on this thread, obv.] only need one or two YLT albums. Take your pick, I guess. I don’t blame any band for soldiering on, though.

that advice goes for most artists

It makes me angry that my ex favourite band degenerates into rubbishness. I already wrote about it a couple of years ago. How can a once dear band become so generic and uninteresting? This is bad computer music without any interesting turns. They have totally lost it. They are not even shadows of themselves anymore, they are their own gravediggers. I cannot by any means understand what happened to this band. RIP YLT.

What are some of your other favorite bands?

Joy division
Giant sand
the smiths
Gun club
The breeders
Low
The House of love
Pixies
Cocteau twins
My bloody valentin
velvet underground

Just to name a few. Why?

It's true that the Pixies have sustained excellence well into their 50s.

Thx – just curious! I’m always interested...

I mean how many Painful and I Can Hear the Heart can a band make in a career? The usual career arc of a good band usually just goes from acclaimed records to a bunch of good not great follow ups at some point; the good not great records can feel great if it is exactly the type of stuff you enjoy, in which case YLT still 100% does for me. If it doesn't then its okay, but holding artists to a lofty standards 20 years after their peak seems truly unfair to me.

Xp. There are lots of other bands i love eg the wipers, the blue aeroplanes, the chills, roxy music etc.

"bad computer music" whuh? What does that mean in this context, or at all?

I've only just started listening to the album--does it become a Looper album or something, later on?

I like this new one

Yo La Tengo is a band where I literally like *the sound* of them playing together

obv some songs are better than others but ultimately they are kinda almost an ambient indie rock band to me