Green Shoelace » Yo La Tengo – ‘Popular Songs’

Yo La Tengo – ‘Popular Songs’

Tuesday August 25th 2009 @ 10:45 am by Steven Karl

Yo La Tengo is at it again. Popular Songs will be the bands 16th proper studio release and will also mark the band’s 25th anniversary. Much like indie stalwarts, Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo has kept themselves out of the spotlight—no stupid on-stage tantrums, tales of torrid sex addiction, or drug-induced tirades; not even little tantalizing bits of band member disputes. Yo La Tengo has always done just one thing and that is make music— music which has been a steady flirtation with genius. Popular Songs is yet another example of the band’s insatiable spirit.

Typical of Yo La Tengo, even the album title smacks of duplicity. For those of us who were weaned on New Wave Hot Dogs and Fakebook, and reaffirmed our love affairs with lo-fi fuzz of Electr-O-Pura, then faithfully followed the band into the blood-soaked sugar-cubes of I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One and finally into the stunningly quiet And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out (a truly underrated gem), Popular Songs will feel like a compilation of the bands’ myriad of musical talents.

Instead of releasing a best of, Yo La Tengo plays homage to their illustrious career by releasing an album of new songs, which knowingly nod backwards while simultaneously head-bobbing us into the now. It’s an ambitious move that only Yo La Tengo could pull off and they do more than pull this off— Popular Songs feels like Yo La Tengo has reinvented rock-n-roll and I love them for that. But Yo La Tengo is not just popular with me.

After decades of making music and a steady, loyal following of fans, a funny thing happen to Yo La Tengo: they released I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass (2006). The album became a hit both with critics and the public—in other words, they managed to maintain their indie-gods credibility while putting out a commercially successful record. Suddenly, the mature music fiends from New Jersey were hot and with this hotness came a horde of new fans. For this legion of new fans, Popular Songs will seem to be a panache of all that has been popular in indie rock. Most of these new fans will have no idea that Yo La Tengo has been doing this better than most for over two decades, and I assume that’s just the way the band likes it.

Popular Songs opens with a series of wahs quickly followed by heavy guitars; the song is hinged together by anthem-inducing strings and lets listeners know they can do “big rock.” “Nothing to hide,” is a perfectly fuzzed-out summer rocker, while “Periodically Triple or Double,” highlights the band’s beautiful rhythm section with bass, guitar, vocals and drums that are so seductive the song is definitely a best of 2009. “If It’s True,” finds Ira and Georgia exchanging vocals ala Dean & Britta, but to a musical score that is straight Motown. This song will force even the staunchest of wallflowers to grab a hand and dance themselves into oblivion beneath a blanket of stars. The record closes with “And The Glitter Is Gone,” a nearly 16 minute epic of drone and feedback.

Yo La Tengo has an uncanny knack for releasing albums that feel classic and nostalgic yet, at the same time, very much in the present and the definition of now. If you think Yo La Tengo has lost step, think again— they are still not afraid of you and will musically leave you mesmerized.