They Still Have It
Yo La Tengo's album ...And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, the best album of 2000 and the band's masterpiece, was the musical equivalent of a steamy summer night, the kind where everyone in the neighborhood leaves their front doors open, the light from both the moon and the street casting a blue hue through each screen door. A meditation on love and married life, real-life husband and wife Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley exchanged extremely personal thoughts through song, amidst some of the most languidly beautiful music they (along with James McNew) had ever created. It all culminated with the spectacular, 17-plus minute closing track, "Night Falls Over Hoboken", a drowsy, "Sister Ray" on downers, somnambulistic epic; as the song went on, it was like the two lovers, who had been sitting outside exchanging intimacies through the night, reached one of those comfortable silences that longtime couples often have, and just sat together and stared at the starlit sky, as the song slowly, gracefully, faded out.
Now, though it's three years later, Yo La Tengo's new album, Summer Sun, seems to continue where their last one left off. In direct correlation to "Night Falls Over Hoboken", the opening drones of the first track "Beach Party Tonight" slowly fade in, building and building, like dawn slowly breaking, sounding like someone gradually waking up after one hell of a wonderful night. Like an alarm clock sounding while you're lying in bed staring at the morning sun, "Little Eyes" begins with a repeated synthesizer "beep", as Yo La Tengo starts to play in earnest, and Hubley, who provides her trademark, gentle, yet propulsive drum beat, sings in that lovely, breathy voice of hers, "Little eyes are open, but they're sinking back again/Don't you know you're sleeping much too long/Wake up little eyes."
In direct contrast to ...And Then Nothing's nocturnal feel, Summer Sun is a little more light and upbeat, yet still bears many of the same musical similarities as the previous record. The Hoboken, New Jersey trio are obviously growing more comfortable with a relaxed, quieter sound (like the last album, it was recorded in Nashville and produced by Roger Moutenot), and have now completely phased out all of the loud, feedback-laced guitars that dominated their early albums. And again, it works very, very well.
Guitarist Kaplan's songs, once more, comprise the bulk of the album, and again venture into highly personal territory, as his gentle croon sounds like whispers in his lover's ear. The ethereal ballad "Nothing But You and Me" is filled with remorse, as he sings, "I don't know how I lost control / But I now know that it's true / That the hurt I aimed at me misfired and came back to hurt you," as an upright bass's notes flutter beneath. The upbeat folky sounds of "Season of the Shark" is also more positive in its lyrical theme ("No matter how much out there scares you so / Just look around / If it's not me, there's someone else you know / You're not alone at all / Ignore the shadows on the wall / They don't mean a thing"), as the song ends in a gentle, catchy, "na-na-na" sing-along. The humorously titled "How to Make a Baby Elephant Float" boasts a quiet, bossa nova beat and layers of keyboards, as Kaplan intones, "I like to hold hands when we walk / I'm not averse to pillow talk / But I prefer a private joke / The memory it evokes." "Don't Have to be So Sad" gets a bit more adventurous, with its shuffling drum machine beat, the thrumming, Daniel Lanois style bass, and the jazzy piano and guitar accents, while Kaplan's lyrics are his most charming on the record: "Last night I was trying to read in bed / I got to watching you sleep instead / Even when I got tired, I couldn't stop / Because I love you so / And I pray you know / But I'm not one for praying / You know I couldn't say that without making a joke."
Hubley's vocal contributions are toned down a bit on Summer Sun, but they're all memorable. Her voice weaves in and out of the slide guitar melodies on "Today Is the Day", the Beach Blanket Bingo-meets-Esquivel of "Winter A-Go Go", as well as the simply exquisite, countrified cover of Alex Chilton's song "Take Care". James McNew sings for the first time on a Yo La Tengo album since 1997's I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One, on "Tiny Birds", a great excursion into trippy pop that manages to evoke both Brian Eno and Brian Wilson.
If you were ever wondering what direction Yo La Tengo's sound will most likely be heading in the future, look no further than the 10-minute jam "Let's Be Still". The jazz influence has been creeping more and more into their music over the past couple years, most notably on the EPs Danelectro and Nuclear War, the latter being a collection of different versions of the same Sun Ra song, and "Let's Be Still" possesses a modal jazz, repeating bass vamp, as well as swirling, improvised flute and trumpet solos. Hubley's vocals are obscured, as if placing more emphasis on melody than actual lyrical content (much like My Bloody Valentine), and Kaplan's vibrato guitar adds a breezy feel to this West Coast cool jazz-meets-dreampop hybrid. It's the album's finest moment.
As good as Summer Sun is, and it's very good, it just doesn't quite have the timeless, magical quality that ...And Then Nothing had. One reason is, there's no knockout, genius pop song like the stupendous "Let's Save Tony Orlando's House"; another reason is, well, it gets a little too sleepy and quiet at times. ...And Then Nothing had the brilliant, fuzzed-out sugar rush of "Cherry Chapstick" that served as a euphoric wake-up call, but this album sadly has nothing of the sort, as it just lugubriously moseys along at its own slow pace.
Yo La Tengo have now been going for nearly twenty years, and they still sound as vital as any other American indie rock band out there today. Much more focused and cohesive than the schizophrenic fun of I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One, but not quite the classic album that ...And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out was, and still is, Summer Sun is the latest in what's amounting to an incredible streak of excellent albums. Yo La Tengo may take their time putting them out, but they're always worth the wait. As was this one.
— 8 April 2003
