YO LA TENGO
Summer sun
CD
/ 2LP, Matador
Another release by Yo La Tengo, another record to fall in love with.
Actually, another part to an impressive body of work to fall in love with.
Because Yo La Tengo, and they are unique in that respect, have carved out a
musical universe all of their own and they move it along with the ease and
speed that is fitting to a monument of such a size. Noting that Yo La Tengo
have settled comfortably in the double-LP-format ever since “I can hear
the heart beating as one” from 1997 (“Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo”
being a precedenting singles / live & obscurities-collection) and in
quite lengthy songs, and that they are keeping up a steady rhythm of
releases of level quality ever since their start in the early Eighties, it
comes clear that the world they have created for themselves is also one they
casually inhabit. Counting up these facts is especially important, because
the image the trio create inevitably of themselves is one of shyness,
clandestiny and smallness – but the facts point to something else, e.g.
that a monumental body of work, unique in many respects can be reached
through keepin on in a gentle pace. Moreover, I find it amazing, how Yo La
Tengo always kept out of any trends and hypes in music, keeping only their
own vision and goal in mind, which makes them appear almost autistic in some
ways.
Or take the people in the band: Georgia Hubley and Ira Kaplan have always
been a couple, so to be the core of Yo La Tengo was always a clear thing.
Without these two there would be no band. After going through a variety of
bass players James McNew has become a steady player with them, but to anyone
this became clear only after a few releases. Now Yo La Tengo are these three
people. And then they started to incorporate various guest players. (I am
counting Dave Schramm, with whom they recorded the fabulous
“Fakebook”-album as a detour on their way) but they are quite well
hidden inside the music. Just try to hear the string-section during “Tiny
Birds” and you’ll know what I mean. On the other hand, guitars have been
mistaken for keyboards and other things for various times during the years.
Anyway, it will take about another decade for Yo La Tengo to evolve into a
four-piece band. Maybe the essence to all this is, that Yo La Tengo is what
makes Yo La Tengo, and what makes them is what it is. And everyone getting
into the tractor-beam of the band will become a part of it.
“Summer Sun” can’t really be put down to a single point in history
of the band. Even though the band likes to refer to its records as snapshots
of the band at a certain time, it is almost impossible to point to the
differences from one record to another. Their music has to be taken in much
longer intervals, because it evolves so slowly. On here are 13 tracks of
three to ten minutes length, which dwell in various paces of gentle to
peaceful tranquillity, and seem to be very much introspective and concerned
with nothing but themselves. In the last years Yo La Tengo have reached a
sound that is akin to the calm surface of a lake in the evening, big and
gentle with a few ripples breaking here and there. “Georgia vs. Yo La
Tengo” is an outstanding track in this respect, with its funky piano-line,
clear drums and percussion in an almost rockish, big-assed arrangement. But
this song is well surrounded by what is state of the art at the time with Yo
La Tengo, this introverted, soft hushes of songs, that seem to ooze by the
listener, either clouding him in a warm cosy fog of music, or demanding a
lot of concentration to get into them. This funkiness is re-echoed a little
bit during “Moonrock Mambo” later on, but not as obvious there and taken
back a lot, towards the end into dreamlike background-singing.
Other than that there are all the things that we have come to love about
Yo La Tengo. The guitar-lines Ira Kaplan is so well-known for are warm, with
quite a lot of echo to keep them stay for a long time, but also muffled to
extreme. Georgia Hubley provides a steady beat, which a lot of people have
compared to Moe Tucker, but that is a mistake easily forgiven (even though
ignorance is quite annoying). Her drumming is unique in the way, that it is
reduced but filled to the rim with emotionality and together with the bass
of James McNew they provide a beat that is very much like the pulse of a
human heart and this, whatever the melody lines above, is what gives the
songs of Yo La Tengo their warmth and humanity. Then there is the gentle
singing of Georgia Hubley on almost half of the songs, and I can remember a
time during a concert in Vienna, when her husband almost had to force her to
sing. Just listen to her during the heart-warming “Take Care” which
closes the record.
Some things come new, of course: the glass-organ and Hammond which give
“Winter A-Go-Go” its almost cheesy easy-listening from the late Sixties
feeling. Or some electronic playthings during “How to make a Baby Elephant
Float”. But all of these “innovations” are well incorporated into the
music that is Yo La Tengo. And the long-winded “Let’s be still”, which
takes us back a good decade to “Sleeping Pill” on “May I sing with
me?” in some ways due to its almost psychedelic, dreamlike drone-quality
and looping of elements, winds up the record leaving no open ends.
