Yo La Tengo
I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One
Matador

It's really amazing! This is the eighth album by Yo La Tengo, Hoboken's finest, or #9 if you're including last years' rarities- compilation bearing that brilliant title Genius+Love=Yo La Tengo. Amazing because this record sounds so fresh and virile, almost like being a debut album. Check out the song Sugarcube, for instance. Energic, catchy, and just the right pop-flavour to make you start jumping around your living-room floor. This is a double album (well, at least on vinyl it is) with 16 songs on it, of which two are cover-versions. Judging from the long line of cover-songs Yo La Tengo have done over the years, they seem to know their history of pop and rock pretty well. This time they're doing a rather dark and fuzzy version of the Beach Boys song Little Honda, by Brian Wilson/Mike Love. And My Little Corner Of The World, by Hilliard/Pockriss; sounding just as charmingly naive as its title implies, being the accurate round-up of the album. But, who did the original anyway?

They're still a trio, with Ira Kaplan on guitar, Georgia Hubley on drums, and James McNew on bass. There's a perfect balance of vocals, as Ira and Georgia are taking turns singing lead. They also share the organ-job, filling their music with even more warmth and passion. This time James McNew has contributed to the material with his composition Stockholm Syndrome, his first song ever on a Yo La Tengo album. (Really?) And something else that is new, is - believe it or not - some sampled portions of Bird Bath by Burt Bacharach(!) are used in the rather modernish tune Moby Octopad. Yo La Tengo going Easy-listening? Oh, no! Not at all. They're still...uh, Yo La Tengo: Sugar-coated, excellent guitar-seasoned drone-pop. Noble and proud, without being arrogant. And inbetween we get pearls like the quiet and beautiful Shadows. All over Yo La Tengo present a fine mixture of all-instrumental tunes together with their songs. Everything nicely arranged and performed.

When listening to the music of Yo La Tengo, it's sometimes like being at the movies. Sort of a cinematic approach....music in wide-screen, with all the lights off. This is also underlined by the title of one of the songs; Deeper Into Movies. And speaking of movies: I guess that Yo La Tengo is one of Hal Hartley's favourites, as they've appeared on the soundtracks of some of his films: Simple Men ('92) and Amateur ('94). Or as in his short film Surviving Desire ('91), where there's a Yo La Tengo poster on some wall. Hal Hartley also directed the video for From A Motel 6 from their 1993 album Painful. AND; last year Yo La Tengo actually had a part in the film I Shot Andy Warhol (directed by Mary Harron), as the Velvet Underground!

I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One is a drug-thing. It seems like I've grown myself a serious addiction...

Copyright © 1997 Håvard Oppøyen

We need more writing contributors to Luna Kafé! Interested? Go here!