Hoboken’s Yo La Tengo have been a favorite of critics for a
long time, and not just because singer/guitarist Ira Kaplan used to be a rock
critic himself.There’s the band’s
longevity, now past twenty years of Kaplan & wife/singer/drummer Georgia
Hubley (bassist James McNew has ‘only’ been in the trio since 1992...).There’s their wide-ranging musical
knowledge, including being able to play more covers than you can shake a stick
at.There’s even their Hanukkah
shows, all eight nights at their hometown’s Maxwell’s (QRO venue review).But
really it’s their music, able to span many different styles & genres while
being great at all of them.That
all keeps apace with their latest, Popular Songs.
The title was probably ironic, given that Yo La Tengo have
always found much more success with critics than in mainstream appeal, but Popular is accessible & enjoyable enough to garner much
wider notice - while still being impressively accomplished & varied.It’s that last aspect, Popular’s variety, which first really comes to notice, as Yo
La Tengo are able to play swishing atmos-psych (opener "Here To Fall"),
drone-tronica ("By Two’s"), bright, relaxed rock ("Nothing To Hide"), and even
a smooth, straight-faced smile with a jazz-funk backbeat ("Periodically Triple
or Double") - and do it all so very well.By the time of middle track "If It’s True", even the most laymen of
listeners is hooked.
The other half of the tracks on Popular follow in sad, soft beauty ("I’m On My Way", "When
It’s Dark", and "All Your Secrets") - enchanting, though after the variety that
came before, feel a little similar.But then Yo La Tengo blow Popular Songs up in its three final songs, "More Stars Than There
Are In Heaven", "The Fireside", & "And the Glitter Is Gone".Those three comprise over thirty
percent of Popular’s running
time, at near ten minutes, over eleven minutes, and near sixteen minutes in
length, respectively."More Stars"
embraces the earlier soft, sad elements even more, and moves further from the
rhythmic wordplay from the record’s start, into a growing, carrying walk away -
and it’s the most verbal of the three, with "Fireside" a stripped
mixture of occasional strumming & reverberations, and "Glitter" just a
straight-out instrumental jam session.
But it’s not like Yo La Tengo can’t pull all of that off,
either, with impressive skill and grace, never falling into self-indulgent
‘look at how good I am’ or off-putting ‘look at what I can do’.If the variety on Popular Songs can be frustrating, it’s only because, after almost
every song, one would be happy with a whole album of that, but Yo La Tengo
instead go in another direction - and succeed once more, starting the whole
process over again.
Often times, critically-acclaimed bands can seem cursed to
remain ‘just’ critically-acclaimed, never breaking into wider appeal - but
that’s often because they haven’t found a way to make interesting music
accessible.Not so with Yo La Tengo
- and Popular Songs has so far been
their most commercially successful record to-date...
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