And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (Yo La Tengo) – by Elliot Simpson
Printed by Bloomsbury 2025
It’s all the time good to welcome a brand new title within the wonderful 33 1/3 collection, the place writers make an in-depth examination of favorite albums. The place the collection actually scores is that it goes past the usual album information of who performed, wrote and produced, to take a way more wide-ranging view of album, artistes and context.
The newest one here’s a actual deal with, as Elliott Simpson examines Yo La Tengo’s mid-career 2000 album And Then Nothing Turned Itself Out. The guide supplies an enchanting account of the music and the way it was made, the writer making many a very good level alongside the best way. He brings in all the things from the native Hoboken NJ reside music scene to Lollapalooza, the impression of MTV, and the now archaic-sounding disputes round Napster and file sharing.
I’d been vaguely conscious of the group since 2003 or so, mentally submitting them within the “impressed by Velvet Underground third album” part, and in a extra common Low, Cowboy Junkies, Mogwai, Eno, Galaxie 500, Sonic Youth kind put up rock bag. So it’s been an actual training to search out out right here that Yo La Tengo predates virtually all of those, having made their first album in 1986. That now stretches to seventeen albums, culminating in 2023’s This Silly World. The group includes long-term couple Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubbard, and bassist James McNew. The writer emphasises how the core idea of the group has all the time been to do issues on their phrases, whether or not meaning self-management or working the merch desk at gigs, all connecting to the Large Query for any artiste, “How do I make a residing doing this?” You actually received’t discover them trashing lodge rooms or out and in of rehab.
The guide is actually sturdy with regards to evoking the broader social/cultural background of their music; suburbia, as skilled in movies like American Magnificence, or the Simpsons’ Springfield World, nailing the false sense of togetherness I bear in mind so effectively from my very own time rising up within the sprawl of SW London. Gregory Crewdson’s cowl picture of nocturnal bungalows, one lit by a dim TV glow, with a solitary determine enigmatically spotlit to 1 aspect, catches the disconnect completely, everybody separated away of their little hutches. The interior shot emphasises the concept of low-key weirdness with a neatly trimmed crop circle-like design in a discipline backed by extra neat suburban houses.
The chapters are named after six of the album’s 13 tracks – although we’re speaking double album actually, enjoying 77 minutes general with eighteen-minute nearer Night time Falls On Hoboken, which will get a full aspect to on vinyl. The monitor itself is a lovely gradual burn as voices progressively dissolve into suggestions – although notably, it’s way more structured than the Velvet Underground’s I Heard Her Name My Identify-like sonic meltdowns on a few of their different albums. Apparently they cite The Kinks and My Bloody Valentine as different main influences/inspirations.
A recurring theme within the guide is the distinction between isolation and neighborhood on the album, as illustrated by songs like Cherry Chapstick and the wonderfully-titled Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s Home, which evokes a David Lynch-like ambiance of a neighborhood alternately rallying round or chanting “Burn child burn!”. The writer argues convincingly that it is a essential report within the group’s improvement. Earlier album I Can Hear the Coronary heart Beating As One had been their most profitable to this point, getting lavish reward from Pitchfork and attracting an viewers looking forward to no matter got here subsequent. I’m certain we are able to all identify once-loved cool bands who by no means recovered from going industrial (I’ll go for the Boo Radleys). However as an alternative of creating an album that may be a launchpad for higher industrial success, Yo La Tengo got here again with a double album of hushed, wintry songs that not often rise above a whisper, and in so doing the group made an emphatic assertion
that they had been following their path and nobody else’s.
Other than offering a complete overview of the group’s profession and sending me off to Discogs for heaps extra YLT, there are all kinds of pleasing snippets. It’s no shock to listen to that they’re very highly effective reside and have a wide-ranging style in cowl variations. There’s additionally an alter ego group, the Apartment Fucks, who play suitably scuzzy storage band takes on the likes of Gudbuy t’Jane and Whatcha Gonna Do About It.
Yo La Tengo’s music is ideal for a chilly winter night time, and this guide makes an excellent introduction to anybody new to their work. For all of the lo-fi delicacy of the music and breathy vocals, there’s all the time a pressure and focus to their music, which makes the occasional free-form meltdowns all of the extra spectacular. And at last – except I’m mistaken, nearly the one factor Elliott Simpson doesn’t clarify is the group’s identify. As with Husker Du, I’ve come throughout just a few completely different interpretations, however it’s Spanish for I’ve acquired it.
And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (Yo La Tengo) is accessible right here
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All phrases by Den Browne, you possibly can learn extra on his writer profile right here:
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