Yo La Tengo Report Card time!
Whispy twee B&S BS: C+
Avalon and I'm on My Way sound like parodies, the male vocals on these albums just haven't aged well, and the music wanders and wanders.
Fast, chuggy pop: B+
Nothing to Hide is a delight! The strings undermine elsewhere.
Loopy, dubby lopers that defy downpinning: B-
Had to add this to the card sometime around The Room Got Heavy: again, Here To Fall's strings are no match for its predecesor's organs, and Periodically Double or Triple's circus-time breakdown seems to overtly added to rescue an overly Spoony runinplace.
Endless explorations of the endless nighttime of the soul: A-
The closing 3-track, 35-minute stretch is the real draw of this album, and putting these tracks together really lets you sink into a post-rock drone-trance. It's at odds with the rest of the album though: how much overlap is there between the times you want to listen to 9 muso pop songs and the times you want to zone out to halfhour droning?
Heart: C
This has been a rough category ever since we could hear it beating as one. The bar was high, but don't come here looking for something that will change your soul more than your mind.
3.5/5
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