#394 Yo La Tengo - Fakebook

Continuing the trip through Yo La Tengo's considerable catalog, this time with a well regarded album regarded an outlier in their catalog.

Here, the band's signature drones and heaviness and expanse are traded in for an entire album of spare, folky pop. As a further divergence, the album is mostly covers, and obscure ones at that - I may have some holes in my background, but I was still surprised that I only recognized The Kink's Oklahoma USA (and I only heard that a couple months ago!). Its a willfully obscure collection, to the extent that it barely reads like a cover album.

None of these songs would have been out of place on IANAoYaIWBYA's between-drone breaks, full as they are of bouncy pop moments, frail boy vocals, frail girl vocals, and plucky guitars. The thing that really makes it work is the excellent curation; the choices may be obscure, but they result in a remarkably cohesive covers album, with legitimate inter-song emotional arcs and strong themes of loves lost and found. Its all listenable and kind, rather sweet, stopping just this side of twee. Not what I traditionally look for in a Yo La Tengo album, but a perfectly agreeable listen that shows off the band's considerable musical wit in whole new ways 3.5/5

You might like this if: you want a sweet, curiously anachronistic bundle of lovelorn tunes, sung Yo La Tengo style, and won't be too disappointed when the drones and atmosphere fail to show up.