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Yo La Tengo is one of those bands you feel obligated to like. It’s truly independent, beloved by critics and its influence and legacy seems to grow by the day.
Yo La Tengo, though — named for the Spanish phrase “I got it!” used by a former Major League Baseball player — is not an easy band to get into. While Wilco music is featured in car commercials and Radiohead has become one of the biggest bands of the past 20 years due in no small part to releasing very likable music, Yo La Tengo is still relatively obscure. And there are good reasons.
You can pick out those reasons on “Popular Songs,” the Hoboken, N.J., group’s newest challenging album. But if you’re able to cast aside questions of relevance, importance, history and technique, you’ll be able to enjoy it without getting hung up on those bigger issues.
The lengths of the final three tracks on “Popular Songs” — 9:39, 11:25 and 15:54 — serve as an indication that succinctness is not a goal here. Even on shorter tunes, like the lush opener “Here to Fall,” sounds and ideas are unfolded as much as they are presented, with watery guitar, strings, and meandering drums creating a wide base for Ira Kaplan’s vocals. “I know you’re worried,” he sings over suspicious sounds. “I’m worried too.” “Avalon or Someone Very Similar” is sunnier, with Georgia Hubley, the drummer and Kaplan’s wife, singing lead.
“By Two’s” enters deep space. There’s a subtle beat and a simple electronic melody, and it’s just as much headphones music as anything by Pink Floyd. It’s an expertly sequenced album, though, so “By Two’s” is followed by the fuzz guitar and Farfisa organ of “Nothing to Hide.”
“Popular Songs” continues in this vein more or less, stopping off for the almost-cocktail jazz of “I’m On My Way” and lilting Spanish guitar and brushed drums of “When It’s Dark” before reaching the trio of stretched-out tunes at the end. The first, “More Stars Then There Are in Heaven,” is a layered slab of shoegaze with a nice Kaplan lyrical lead guitar line partway through. At the end, the instruments, aside from a cycling drum fill, fall away. “The Fireside” waits seven minutes before the vocals enter. And “And the Glitter Is Gone,” an instrumental at nearly 16 minutes, is adventurous even by Yo La Tengo standards. It’s a controlled freakout, hypnotic thanks to repeated instrumental parts tempered with occasional varied forays that are too subtle to call solos.
Like “Popular Songs,” “And the Glitter Is Gone” is perfect at being what it is: odd and comforting, understated and confident.
Rating: W W W W 1/2