It’s almost impossible to review the latest album in Yo La Tengo’s 25-year career without making it sound boring. The adjectives that come to mind — consistent, solid, dependable — spell dullness and predictability. But Popular Songs is neither predictable nor dull.
Beginning with the lush “Here to Fall,” Popular Songs starts off as a pop album, with the band moving through various periods, sampling pop-punk, ’60s soul and general prettiness. The tracks never fall into mundane sameness but they always manage to sound just like Yo La Tengo. By album’s end, the band falls into its signature drawn-out, introspective experimentalism (the final three tracks each come close to or surpass the 10-minute mark), but even that somehow fits with the album’s melodic first half. This far into its career, you wouldn’t expect Yo La Tengo to surpass their ’90s heyday or to get any better with age, but they’ve performed quite a feat by refusing to get any worse.
Post the first comment: (Login or Register)