Yo La Tengo’s latest album neatly falls into two halves: the tightly
woven first nine songs, and the three endlessly mesmerizing jams that
stretch across the album’s final 37 minutes.
Those indulgent, mostly instrumental epics could form a mini-album
of their own—but rather than seeming tacked on, they’re pure
headphone escapism, and some of the most beautiful, cogent music the
band has made.
“More Stars Than There Are in Heaven” is nine minutes of dreamy
shoegaze; “The Fireside” is 11 minutes of an unhurried, hypnotically
twisting acoustic guitar; and album closer “And the Glitter Is Gone” is
16 minutes of noisy, buzzing guitar freak-out.
Elsewhere, Popular Songs proves the band’s talent and
flexibility, leaping from fuzzy guitar attacks to throwback sunshine
pop to languid, spooky trance, mixing strings and keyboards into their
classic guitar-bass-drums combo.
“Nothing to Hide” is a sweet, fuzzy and catchy sequel to the trio’s
1997 near-hit “Sugarcube,” while “If It’s True” finds Yo La Tengo
cozying up in between Motown and 1960s boy-girl pop, and “Periodically
Double or Triple” takes its funky bassline and flighty organ from 1970s
soul.
Opener “Here to Fall” begins with an echoing, discordant guitar and
has Ira Kaplan singing about what it means to fall in love and face
together all of life’s happy endings and failed dreams, hope and dread,
worry and readiness.
Popular Songs showcases Yo La Tengo as a self-assured and
versatile band, still able to pack a worried disorientation into the
catchiest of pop songs.
This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2009.