It's that time of year - veteran New Jersey purveyors of noise pop and all-round greatest band in the world Yo La Tengo are doing their annual fundraiser for their community radio station, WFMU. Listeners call in to pledge money and make requests for cover versions, which the band then attempt to play without rehearsal. The results can be, well, entertaining, as last year's Yo La Tengo Is Murdering The Classics made abundantly clear.
As I expected, over the last few weeks, playing it virtually non-stop in the car, I've gradually warmed more and more to last year's 'proper' album, I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass. It does pretty much all the things I've come to expect from YLT, with my only major quibble being that the last track, The Story Of Yo La Tango, doesn't really quite come up to the standards of previous epic album-closers.
Otherwise, though, it's a gloriously eclectic gumbo of pop, rock, jazz and just about every 'alternative' sub-category you can think of, an album that, moving from guitar feedback freakouts to ambient instrumentals, just begs to be played at full blast.
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