Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World
Yo La Tengo's sixteenth studio album is reflective, funny and defiant
'This stupid world – it’s killing me / This stupid world – is all we have'. That delicate balance is the defining thesis of the new record from Yo La Tengo, who have resisted the passing of the years and generic success: confronting darkness and digging deep to find hope in each other and what surrounds them.
This latest outing for the trio is lean and alive. Tonight’s Episode is a surreal contrapuntal descent into murk, acoustic guitar appearing like some luminescent undiscovered species in the inkiest depths of the ocean. The chaotic feedback of the title track doesn’t relent – harmonies tear through the noise, battling to exist. They do it across This Stupid World, luring you into a smudged groove, only to hit you with the latest in a long line of their shiny, heart-piercing guitar riffs at the next moment. By the end, it opens up into blissed-out dub.
The foundation of it all is Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley and James McNew, who seem to exist outside of time, if the narrator of Fallout is to be believed. They do more with the concept in 49 minutes than time-obsessed director Christopher Nolan has attempted across an entire filmography. Reflective and funny, Yo La Tengo would be forgiven for recording endless victory laps at this point. Instead, they continue to defy.
Listen to: Tonight’s Episode, Apology Letter, Miles Away