Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo’s ‘Painful’ album, which was released in 1993, was seen as a breakthrough for this influential US band, as it saw them change their style to include ambient and atmospheric sounds which gave their music a weight it had been missing in my view. It is one of their most beloved albums and recently they took the opportunity to reissue it with a load of extra tracks.

Regarding the original album, the opening track ‘Big Day Coming’ is a plaintive, almost Pink Floyd-esque epic which stripped down a lot of the style associated with the band to become a slow organ based track.
Interestingly there is a second version of the song at the end of the album which is much more of a noise freakout. The lovely ‘Nowhere Near’ and ‘The Whole of the Law’ are gentle love songs, the former sung by drummer Georgia Hubley and the latter a duet between Hubley and mainman Ira Kaplan.

For those who still liked Yo La Tengo’s noise workouts, the likes of the aforementioned second version of ‘Big Day Coming’, ‘From a Motel 6’ and ‘I Was a Fool Beside You For Too Long’ will get their kicks from the sheer intensity shown in those tracks. The original album’s final track, ‘I Heard You Looking’, is almost a blend of the two styles approached by the band, as it starts off gently and eventually explodes into a wall of noise.

The bonus tracks on this reissue are fairly interesting, the unreleased track ‘Smart Window’ could easily have fit on the album as it’s a great feedback strewn rock song. The epic live version of ‘I Heard You Looking’ is excellent, and as the ‘Shaker’ 7-inch single which is included on this album. If you are looking for an introduction into the always evolving world of Yo La Tengo, this album is a good place to start.