And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (Yo La Tengo) – by Elliot Simpson
Printed by Bloomsbury 2025
It’s at all times 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 info 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 e-book supplies an interesting account of the music and the way it was made, the creator making many an excellent level alongside the way in which. He brings in every part from the native Hoboken NJ stay music scene to Lollapalooza, the affect 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 sort publish 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 contains long-term couple Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubbard, and bassist James McNew. The creator emphasises how the core idea of the group has at all times been to do issues on their phrases, whether or not meaning self-management or working the merch desk at gigs, all connecting to the Massive Query for any artiste, “How do I make a residing doing this?” You definitely gained’t discover them trashing resort rooms or out and in of rehab.
The e-book is de facto 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 keep in mind so properly 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 at least one facet, catches the disconnect completely, everybody separated away of their little hutches. The inside shot emphasises the thought of low-key weirdness with a neatly trimmed crop circle-like design in a discipline backed by extra neat suburban properties.
The chapters are named after six of the album’s 13 tracks – although we’re speaking double album actually, taking part in 77 minutes general with eighteen-minute nearer Night time Falls On Hoboken, which will get a full facet to on vinyl. The monitor itself is a phenomenal sluggish burn as voices step by step dissolve into suggestions – although notably, it’s way more structured than the Velvet Underground’s I Heard Her Name My Title-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 e-book is the distinction between isolation and group 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 environment of a group alternately rallying round or chanting “Burn child burn!”. The creator argues convincingly that this can be a essential file within the group’s growth. Earlier album I Can Hear the Coronary heart Beating As One had been their most profitable up to now, getting lavish reward from Pitchfork and attracting an viewers longing for no matter got here subsequent. I’m certain we will all identify once-loved cool bands who by no means recovered from going industrial (I’ll go for the Boo Radleys). However as a substitute of creating an album that will be a launchpad for larger 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.
Aside from 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 stay 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 evening, and this e-book makes a fantastic introduction to anybody new to their work. For all of the lo-fi delicacy of the music and breathy vocals, there’s at all times a rigidity 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 a couple of completely different interpretations, but it surely’s Spanish for I’ve acquired it.
And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (Yo La Tengo) is out there right here
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