Yo La Tengo Will Kick Your Ass

Yo La Tengo does not get enough credit.  Sure, they have been indie rock darlings for years, but to me they should be bona fide rock stars.  They have been around forever, dating back to 1984; they have released 12 studio albums, 4 compilation albums, 12 EPs, etc.  Unfortunately, they have never really achieved much commercial success and are what most people call “critics’ band” for writing excellent songs.  They do have quite the cult following, though, which is why they have been able to sustain for so long.

The band is primarily three members:  Ira Kaplan (guitars, piano, vocals), Georgia Hubley (drums, piano, vocals), and James McNew (bass, vocals).  The trio has been in place since McNew took over bass duties in 1993.  Their writing style has continued to evolve as they have grown older, from garage rock in the early days to folk rock to experimental rock now.  They have even written songs for soundtracks, mostly in the last decade, which helped lay the groundwork for the record I am reviewing.

# 188 – Yo La Tengo, I Am not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass  (Metascore = 85)

“Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind”, the opening track, is an experimental rock sound with distorted bass and guitars jamming on a straight-from-the-catalog-of-Velvet-Underground hook.  Mostly this is a jam song, because there are few lyrics over the 10:47 it takes.  “Beanbag Chair” couldn’t be more different from “Pass the Hatchet”.  Outside of the guitar pyrotechnics of “Hatchet”, “Beanbag Chair” features pounding piano chords while Kaplan quietly sings about personal reflections.  “I Feel Like Going Home” continues this quiet section of the album (sung by Hubley).

“Mr. Tough” is a bouncy tune that sounds like it would be right at home in the Spoon catalog or performed by Huey Lewis.  For some reason I envision Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head arguing on the Toy Story films when I hear this song.  “The Race Is on Again” brings us back to the pacing from “Pass the Hatchet”.  “The Room Got Heavy” sounds like a precursor to music performed by the Jack White vehicle the Dead Weather (great example would be “60 Feet Tall” or anything off of Horehound) with its droning guitar motif and screeching organ blasts.  Then the band does another 180 with “Sometimes I Don’t Get You”, a piano-driven song of sadness in one’s inability to understand his companion.

After the long instrumental “Daphnia”, the band swerves into ‘60’s pop “I Should Have Known Better”, a rambunctious song about knowing there are better ways to do things than the way the character does (getting into fights on trains, giving the finger to people driving cars).  The fun continues with “Watch Out for Me Ronnie”, which I recently heard on Sirius XMU (great channel by the way).  They switch gears again with the country rock swing of “The Weakest Part”.

My biggest issue with this record is there’s a start-stop-start again-stop again thing going on.  While the songs themselves are interesting, the critics’ assessment that the band is dipping back into their song catalog to explore seems accurate since the sounds bounce around like they do.  The New Music Express critic felt like the band was on autopilot, and this seems true, too.  The 85 Metascore seems a stretch here despite the strength of the songs individually; as a whole, the album is not.