Yo La Tengo
I am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
Matador Records (2006)

Burn It

by Nicholas Nocketback

This trio out of Hoboken, New Jersey brings the funk on so many levels you’ll need an abacus to dissect it. Tengo’s been together since the 80s and is no stranger to the indie rock outfit. Their latest effort finds much of the same, but that’s not always a good thing. Each tune is an eclectic mélange of synthesized keys, bongos, guitars—in their myriad forms—and morose monotones.
Now I like the randomness of music more than most, I believe, but there comes a time when you stop letting the shuffle dictate your life. Although the husband and wife team share lead vocal duties, I find their sound less hit and more miss. I suppose I can liken their music to that of The Doors—case in point, “The Room Got Heavy.” Other, more mellow, masculine Beatle-esque tunes are quite quaint and charming: “Sometimes I Don’t Get You” and “Beanbag Chair” are friendly patches of splendor in an inconsistent album.
Although, as I am listening to it for the tenth time at 11:00pm this evening, I’m finding its charm maturing. “I Feel Like Going Home” is playing at the moment and Georgia Hubley is crooning softly in my ear to a hauntingly depressing piano chord progression—a female Rufus Wainwright. Jesus, I feel as if my face will contort any second now and the tears will fire out of my ducts. Then, “Mr. Tough,” the subsequent track, comes rifling through my speakers, cow bell laden and as happily poppy as the Bosom Buddies theme song. You know what? I want to retract the beginning of this review and the title. I’m falling in love with this disc. Instead of “Burn It” (which I intended literally), I’d like to make it “Yo La Tengo, Yo Go Get It!” Sorry for the inconsistency, folks, but then again, I am American after all—it’s woven into our social fabric.