Yo La Tengo
And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
It took me a while to even give Yo La Tengo a chance. Back in the day when I was just starting to explore independent music, I would buy pretty bland albums like Out of Shadow by Rogue Wave, Room on Fire by The Strokes or Logic Will Break Your Heart by The Stills. Yet, I just couldn’t appreciate some of the pinnacles of indie rock in Sonic Youth or Yo La Tengo. I don’t know if I’ll ever understand why, but when I finally heard And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, I instantly regretted not listening sooner.
After I started listening to their back catalog, I envisioned this band as a bunch of music geeks. It’s pretty easy to pick out some of the band’s greatest influences. It’s almost as if Yo La Tengo has been able to pick out the greatest aspects of their favorite bands and seamlessly mesh them together into their own rock anthems and ballads. Most notably, on “Cherry Chapstick” (my favorite song of the album) you can hear some of the greatest experimentation with dissonance and feedback not unlike Sonic Youth. To label the band as a noisy art rock group is selling them short though. This album proves how eclectic they can be. On “Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House” there is a mesmerizing looped backdrop enhanced by an almost kitschy organ line that might be found on a Sterolab record. Yo La Tengo is able to take these various influences from their respective times and meld them into something that is now culturally relevant here and now without sounding like another throw-back band. -R.C.
I believe that one of the hardest things for songwriters to achieve is to make work that is personal, sincere, affecting…. and never becomes cheesy. Yo La Tengo accomplishes this on And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out. These songs all have sentiment and deeply-embedded emotions behind them; they’re the type of songs you would love to listen to late at night with a significant other. And they’re arranged in a way where there’s just enough variation in pace to keep you feeling moved rather than bored. An excellent record you’ll love listening to again and again. - Phil
This really is an excellent record - wasn't it these guys who you said dominated the first night at Pitchfork? I hope so!
ReplyDeleteThey were awesome at Pitchfork. Unfortunately, it was Built to Spill that headlined though.
ReplyDeleteYo La Tengo never quite dominate, but they're a solid (if slightly dull) live band. The band that did dominate was the mother fuckin' Jesus Lizard!
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, glad you dug this record Phil. This is a deeply emotive, yet sophisticated record - a rare treat.