Yo La Tengo

Since when is a band's ninth album their best? Yo La Tengo prove some bands actually get progressively better on this 1997 record. The record is like a compendium of the best parts of independent guitar pop taken from the last 25 years. Not that it's scattershot either, the record flows wonderfully -- with "Moby Octopad" and the cover of "Little Honda" being highlights.

The key to Yo La Tengo's sound is in their noisy cover of the Beach Boys' "Little Honda," off
the trio's eighth and latest album, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. Like the Beach Boys,
Yo La Tengo, who've been indie rockers since Pavement were pimply teens, work within
the American pop tradition. But as the Boys did on their kaleidoscopic '60s masterpiece,
Pet Sounds, Yo La Tengo aren't afraid to expand their sonic horizons. On their la... More >

No one has made more of bohemian easy-listening--cocktail samba, trance-skronk, good old-fashioned slow ones than Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, boho dream couple and cultural miniaturists. From the misshapen piano figure that trumps "Moby Octopad"'s Peter Townshend guitar swell to "Deeper Into Movies"' raveup workout, from Georgia's simulated Astrud Gilberto cover to James McNew's simulated Neil Young ballad, this is a band that has figured out what makes its faves tick and its tickers beat as one. The very peak is "Autumn Sweater," which with its "We could slip away" refrain comes on like (gulp!) a cheating song, only to reveal itself as Ira's diffident, lovestruck tribute to Georgia's companionable support. Modest rather than narrow, their joy and sadness are no less sweet or intense for the larger life they know nothing of. (Grade - A)