Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo's 12th album is almost as awesome as its title. The 12-string electric guitar leads on "The Race Is on Again" recall the Byrds' live take on "Eight Miles High," and "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind" boasts seizure-inducing psychedelic guitar leads a la Hawkwind's Space Ritual. Weeping string arrangements, sparse piano notes and homesick lyrics make "I Feel like Going Home" the saddest thing they've recorded since "Tears Are In Your Eyes," and the falsetto harmonies, big band horns and Vince Guaraldi-inspired piano give "Mr. Tough" a late-'90s Beck vibe.

It's official: Yo La Tengo suck at titling their albums, but they sure know how to make them.
The New Jersey indie-rock trio's latest is easily its best of the past decade or so -- the kind
of guitar-crazed masterpiece the band used to bang out every couple of years back in the
Nineties. They begin and end the album with high-energy psychedelic guitar trances that
break the ten-minute barrier without dragging for a second. Ira Kaplan retains hi... More >