Yo La Tengo are one of those bands, like the Flaming Lips, who have allegedly wandered about for ages, making lots of not very good albums, and now have just suddenly started sounding good, in the past couple of years. I know this isn't true of the Flaming Lips, and I doubt it's true of YLT. As I don't yet have any of these older  'not very good' albums, I can't say either way. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the main reason they're undervalued is because of the changeability of their sound.

There's always the slightly retro lo-fi feel to YLT records, but they've embraced everything from noise rock to alt-country. Vocally, it's true they've improved (the band have said so themselves), with the lyrics becoming more open. Their last record, 'And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out', was much more slow and contemplative in general, but at the same time had a Lou Reed-style pop heart. Heart is a phrase that's often used when describing YLT, generally in combination with head, the theory being that Yo La Tengo have a tendency to think to much at the expense of genuine feeling, too much head, not enough heart. This certainly isn't the case with their more recent records, which give both good heart and, yes, good head.

And in case you're wondering, it means 'I have it' in Spanish.

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I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One (1997, Matador)
You want variety? Well, with guitars, drums, bass and organ Yo La Tengo have always been kinda obsessed wirth keeping things are interesting as possible. The odd thing is that this album holds together very well; second-to-opening track 'Moby Octopad' has a wandering pass line and burst of feeback under languid vocals. It's followed by the sweet noise-pop of  'Sugarcube' yet you wouldn't be suprised to find the tracks were by the same band. The two things that hold this record together are the vocals, ever so slightly off key and quietly sung, and Ira Kaplan's guitar; frazzled bursts of notes which doesn't sound like much else except for some bits of Hendrix's 'Star Spangled Banner'. So the accoustic 'Stockholm Syndrome' is interspersed with an out-of-tune noisy guitar solo to great effect, tying the song with other more distorted tracks.

Yo La Tengo have a beautiful honesty and openness to their music. All the songs are definitely about something, and not just hollow lyrics chosen only for the way they rhyme. Partly it's the vocals, sung by people who don't normally sing. Even the super-distorted cover 'Little Honda' has the quiet undersung vocal style which makes Yo La Tengo (along with other bands like Low and Arab Strap) curiously intimate, however noisy they're being.

The band apparently write a lot of songs while jamming; which explains the slow, loose feel of many tracks. 'Spec Bebop' is an outright jam-fest and manages incredibly listenable 14 minutes or so without changing the rhythm once. It's hard to image one band making two tracks as different as 'Green Arrow' and 'Deeper Into Movies', but Yo La Tengo can do it without blinking.

And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-out (2000, Matador)
Yo La Tengo are one of those bands who get misinterpreted as somehow clever and intellectual, but who have trouble conveying emotions in their lyrics. I don't think this was ever true, and this album certainly proves it's not the case for YLT 2000. This is one of the most honest records I think I've ever heard; musically, it's diverse (Yo La Tengo claim they're just trying to keep things interesting for their audience), but diverse in the sense that YLT are simply using the instruments and the sounds they want to. Lyrically, it seems autobiographical, even if it isn't, and the relationship between Georgia and Ira adds a kind of truth to them, particularly when they sing together.

This is a pretty quiet album, insofar as it has only one discordant noise-pop track (the superlative 'Cherry Chapstick'). It's also romantic, but with a combination of the aforementioned honesty, and a recalcitrance to the vocals, which make it seem entirely genuine and worlds away from conventional love songs.

It does have one long, 17-minute primarily instrumental closer, 'Night Falls on Hoboken', like a less discordant but equally experimental-improvised equivalent to 'Diamond Sea' off the Sonic's 'Washing Machine' LP. The track is about as slow a come down at the end of a record as you could wish for; and it fits the generally relaxed tone of the album as a whole (rather unlike 'Diamond Sea'). This is not entirely a follow-up to 'I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One', so much as another aspect of YLT's ever-expanding repertoire. It looks like there is nothing they can't pull off.

#LINKS#
YoLaTengo.net
The best YLT site I've found so far.
YLT Homepage
I'm not sure what's happened to this... last time I looked it weren't there. Think it may now be yolatengo.net
Matador Records Page
when it works, this page is great. has a section with all the people who've suffered onstage with ylt somewhere
Jens Kutilek's YLT Page
interesting and original page with an interview

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