Yo La Tengo: Popular Songs

Label: Matador

YLT has always showed a great deal of variety, but they’ve outdone themselves on this album, which has so many styles that over its first half (the first nine of its twelve songs) it almost sounds like a multi-artist compilation. The first track, “Here to Fall,” makes it immediately clear that YLT refuses to be pigeonholed; they’ve never before sounded quite like this track’s Brit-poppish heavy electronic-plus-strings vibe. “If It’s True” opens like it’s about to burst into “Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch” or “Soul Deep,” and soul sounds/references pop up elsewhere as well. Jangley dream-pop, snazzy ’70s pop, a darkly keyboard-heavy lullabye, pounding rock, a loungey groove, and an acoustic ditty that always seems on the verge of becoming “Sloop John B” make appearances. Then, for the three long concluding tracks that are roughly equal in their combined length to the nine preceding songs, we are in familiar territory: the long, guitar-oriented drones and whispered vocals that are practically a YLT trademark, closing with a raucous freakout. (Steve)