Last year’s ‘Prisoners Of Love’ best-of/rarities 3-disc set was as satisfying a final word as anyone could have wished for. A tumbling tribute through 20 years and 11 albums of dizzying eclecticism, bohemian creativity and lo-fi self-sufficiency. It was a patchwork of gentle peaks with a surprising fluidity. If it were an obituary, and it is beautifully articulated, it would probably win the Pulitzer Prize or something. But this band didn’t die – au contraire. This band maybe never will. They just carry on playing, they seemingly can’t help but do that. And on their 12th studio album, staying predictably true to form they unwaveringly display signs of the dizzying eclecticism, bohemian creativity and lo-fi self-sufficiency we’ve come to expect. If anything they’ve throw up a record to compete directly with the best of. Which is some feat, or it would be for anyone else. For Yo La Tengo it feels like a day’s work.
Their last studio album, 2003’s ‘Summer Sun’, was more anchored in an early evening haze, bedding into a warm, slightly detached ambience, obscured by the piercing glint of the magnified sun through an angled window. The slapstick titled ‘I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass’ is more like a fortnight photo-timeshifted down to an hour. It goes pretty much everywhere, shows you everything, without stretching you. Let’s take the opening 3 tracks of 15, they’re as good an illustration as any.
‘Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind’ alongside the LP title has them going head-to-head with Liars in the most ridiculous use of language in indie, and is a demandingly hypnotic 10 minute art-rock grilling to boot, a mesh of lashing feedback, treacle-thick rhythms and distant vocal abstractions. ‘Beanbag Chair’ then rides a Toy Town train between ELO and Ben Folds and the introductory trio is rounded off by ‘I Feel Like Going Home’, a reflective fiddle-laced bout of REM-folk loneliness. To just dip into the next track ‘Mr Tough’ for a moment, things appear to be heading in a barbershop Four Tops type direction next. An innovation known as the padded cell was developed for exactly such behaviour in individual human beings. Sometimes though it’s more fun for all involved just to crack the whip and make them dance for you. Long may Yo La Tengo continue to be forced to dance.