After 34 successful years of being a band and 15 full length albums, one would think that a band would have a signature sound. But, Yo La Tengo, one of the more iconic and influential indie rock bands out there currently, continues album after album to innovate and experiment with their sound.
With Yo La Tengo’s new album “There’s a Riot Going On,” their changing sounds gives an opportunity for new listeners to discover the band as well as longtime fans to enjoy and appreciate the new approach to music that the presents.
The album starts out with “You Are Here,” a nice instrumental intro that helps establish the raw tone for the entire album. That raw nature continues throughout the album, sounding like the band is performing live through the speakers. This sound is due to the band producing and engineering the album themselves in the rehearsal space they have.
With the freedom the band had by producing the album themselves, it gave them more freedom to experiment with different genres of music throughout this album. While they have songs with the indie rock sounds they are usually known for, like standouts “She May, She Might” and “For You Too,” they experiment with doo-wop and Latin-based sounds as well.
The real highlight for me was when they started to experiment with more atmospheric and ambient sounds towards the middle of the album. Even though the overall tone of the album is really calm, going against the riotous nature of the title, the band really embraces that calm nature with the two songs “Dream Dream Away” and “Shortwave.” The instrumentation shines within these two songs and made me wish the entire album was like this.
But, sometimes experimentation with sounds on albums do not always work. “Forever,” incorporating the doo-wop sound, and the song towards the end of the album “Out of the Pool,” which incorporated spoken word, were not necessary. With the album clocking in at over an hour, those songs could have been taken out and the flow of the album would have been better.
To close the album, the band saved the best for last with “Here You Are,” compared to the first song on the album. Those two songs combined to make a pair of incredible bookends to the album. Those songs brought out my favorite sounds from the band from their entire discography, embracing the quieter and calm sounds.
Overall, the album was an entertaining album. With a little trimming however, it could have been one of my favorite albums by Yo La Tengo but that will still go to their 2013 release “Fade.”
Downloadable Songs: “You Are Here,” “For You Too,” “Shortwave,” “Here You Are.”
Overall Grade: B+
Loading ...