01092015 - Yo La Tengo "Stuff Like That There"

Since November last year, when my web writings went into hiatus, I never stopped listening to at least one new album a day. That was something I had done for a couple of years before I started this blog, and I have continued doing just that. Every day I have been checking out an album I have never heard before. It's easy, anyone can do it and everybody should. Actually I have probably been averaging two or three new albums a day the last 8-10 months. However, most of these have been releases that weren't out just yet, and that will not do for this project. I want to share the joy, and it wouldn't be fair to you guys if I only wrote about records that you couldn't hear for a month or three. Nor would it be very interesting in the long run. Sure, I've checked out several albums that were already out as well, but, you know, I have been SO busy! I'm gonna try to do this thing again though, because I've really missed it. Hope you have missed me a little too...

Enough about me, let's talk about the new Yo La Tengo album. I was never a diehard YLT fan, and I don't believe I own any of their albums. So this is probably the wrong place to start, but what the heck. This is their 30 years anniversary release, and includes reworkings of their own songs (that I don't know) as well as a neat bunch of covers (some of which I do know, but definitely not all of them). I would call this very pleasant, in a very non-dangerous way, and their versions of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" (which has been covered better before) and "Friday I'm In Love" (which really shoudn't be covered) really don't give me anything. It's cozy acoustic stuff that your aunt would enjoy. Wasn't this band supposed to be an indie rock icon? To me the biggest surprise is their cover of Sun Ra's "Somebody's In Love", because I really didn't know that was a Sun Ra original nor that Sun Ra ever sounded like that. (Note to self - Sun Ra needs checking out for future posts.)