Albums I Love: Painful

I feel fairly secure in saying that Yo La Tengo is the most unclassifiable band ever. When you have a career spanning 23 years and 13 LP's (pending the release of 'Popular Songs' in September of this year) this is almost a necessity. If for no other reason, the sheer scope of their body of work solidifies them as pioneers of indie rock, not to mention that they were making the first steps into the genre as early as 1986. Despite this however, most of their work has remained insulated to a small core of fans, even within the indie sphere. Really, only "I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One" and select tracks off of "I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass" have truly gotten some widespread (relatively speaking) listening. It is a failing of the genre, that we often pigeonhole one record from a band as the "quintessential listen" and hence relegate much of their equal and oftentimes better work to being superfan collectibles. If this is what has kept you from spinning 1993's 'Painful', shame on you.

I'm not actually too dissapointed here, but now you have no excuse. This is the quintessential indie album, the foundation which many bands you love most likely stand on. There are truly traces of nearly every trend to emerge in guitar based indie rock of the next 15 years on this record. Take the post rock beauty of opener "Big Day Coming". For seven minutes the track barely whispers its anticipatory lyrics, "There's a big day coming/And I can't hardly wait," as if scared that anything more and the delicate beauty would melt away. Only then to have the sonic pallette shattered with the distortion-drenched irrestible pop ride that is "From A Motel Six". "Superstar Watcher", into "Nowhere Near" find the band at their most atmospheric. Washes of smooth organ tones caress Georgia Hubley's sustained, gentle voice as she asks "Do you know how I feel?/How I feel about you?". "Sudden Organ" characterized by (you guessed it) stabs of reverbed organ blast, is the probable origin of all those Velvet Underground comparisons that only kind of made sense. On "I Was The Fool Beside You For Too Long" the band opens up for huge arena sized guitar chords, before toning down for a cover of The Only Ones tune, "The Whole Of The Law". Nowhere else does the band acheive the beauty of this track (which is considerable praise in a discography boasting 'And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out'). You hear the longing and almost feel distance as Ira and Georgia sing to each other, "I'd plumb the depths of every sea for you/I'd escape from my chains, and I'll reach out for you". In finale, the guitar cacophony that would come to characterize later Yo La Tengo freakouts is featured for 7 minutes straight on the visceral closer, "I Heard You Looking".

Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew. These three are the anti-rock stars. Mild mannered, slightly goofy looking people making music outside of any popular influence. To see these three, and then to hear them, is to be shocked. And yet that is their charm. To know the ferocity, the passion, the beauty, and the vision within three such ordinary folks, is to know these things in yourself. And to know that is anything but 'Painful'.

Best Tracks: "From A Motel Six", "Nowhere Near", "The Whole Of The Law"