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THE REVIEW
For Everyone
What is intimacy today? Stuff Like That There takes us to that intense harmony that we can achieve and have with very few people and very rarely. Not a mere exercise in style, calligraphic, but a further step in the research, in its own experimental way, that has always distinguished YLT. A step, here, totally in the direction of Folk. From the pages of the popular music encyclopedia to the pages of everyday life, and vice versa, seamlessly. In the mature vision, due to the age achieved, the album retrieves and replicates the intentions, thrills, and tenderness of 1990's Fakebook, a sparse flower of youth, fragrant, even naive, unripe, and thoroughly enjoyable. Today, without self-indulgence, this new compilation, among covers, autograph remakes, and two unreleased tracks, aspires, if not to proverbial “Magic moments,” at least to intimate moments, evoked with skill, credibility, and intellectual honesty. The subdued atmosphere of the acoustic setup, with measured electric guitar inlays (the trio welcomes back Dave Schramm, guitarist of the first album “Ride the Tiger”) prepares pieces that don't overwhelm but accompany and suggest, don't provoke but warm, or rather, heat up. In a delicate, not faint tone.
Standing out on the tracklist is the acoustic reinterpretation that enhances, by slowing it down, the melodic beauty of Friday I’m in Love: it doesn’t hide it but reveals it, dazzling, poignant. A beauty that is discretion and impulse at the same time. Almost like moving from an Ingres's Odalisque to Titian’s Venus (of Urbino).
Then there's the folk gentleness of Butchie’s Tune (cover of the Lovin' Spoonful), the ethereal, non-platonic embrace of My Heart’s Not in It (cover of Darlene McCrea), the shadowy I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry of the rebel Hank Williams, the tinkling I Can Feel the Melting Ice (emptied from the Funk of Parliament), the peaceful, anti-grunge reinterpretation of their own piece Deeper into Music (from “I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One”) and All Your Secrets (remake from “Popular Songs”) to whisper under the stars.
The superfluous is removed, thinned out; everything appears as it is, open to dialogue, simple, human. The gaze supports it. Or is it unbearable? I feel you watching.
I heard you looking.
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Summary by Bot
Stuff Like That There by Yo La Tengo explores intimate and mature folk-inspired soundscapes through acoustic setups and skillful reinterpretations. The album recalls the 1990s charm of Fakebook but with greater intellectual honesty and warmth. Reimagined covers and remakes of their own songs evoke quiet, delicate moments rather than overwhelming the listener. With contributions from early collaborators, the album’s gentle ambiance invites reflection and connection.Tracklist Lyrics
10 Deeper Into Movies (05:09)
I may have been gazing out too late at night
I see a deeper window into my eyes
Every day they screech outside my window,
The crashing cars never seem to collide
Sometimes when I'm staring out my window
To catch the stars, I watch as they go by
I've been getting messages from outer space
They expire light in the window in the sky
There goes my mind
If we dare walk onto my window
I could hear them if I open my eyes
Sometimes flashing lights seem soulful in the window
You may have seen them circle me at night
I keep sending signals into outer space
They expire by your window in the sky
There goes my mind
Every day when restlessness takes over me
I can't see it as I'm closing my eyes
I keep sending signals into outer space
They expire light in the window in the sky
Sometimes when I'm staring out my window
To catch the stars, I watch as they go by
I've been getting messages from outer space
They expire light in the window in the sky
By your window in the sky
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo are an American indie rock band associated with Hoboken, New Jersey, widely described in the reviews as an institution of alternative/indie rock defined by expressive freedom and eclectic range from feedback-heavy noise to quiet folk-leaning intimacy. The long-running core is the trio of Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and (since 1992) James McNew.21 Reviews
