More about: Yo La Tengo

It goes without saying that Yo La Tengo have an established repertoire. For nearly forty years, the band has been redefining indie rock, blending heavier instrumentation with folk-inspired vocals to near perfection. This Stupid World reflects a continuation in this cycle, allowing anxiety, acceptance and existentialism to battle it out in seven-minute-long tracks that transport listeners to Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley and James McNew’s weirdly beautiful universe. 

This Stupid World opens with ‘Sinatra Drive Breakdown’, suggesting the emphasis on immersive instrumentational segments that will follow over the course of the album. The repetitive bass line drives this track, pushing forward the electric guitar and vocal musings that drift in and out. Named after a street in the band’s birthplace of Hoboken, New Jersey, ‘Sinatra Drive Breakdown’ uses dissonance and extended rhythmic passages to create an unsettling but intriguing entry point into the depths of This Stupid World. 

We move onto a more traditional rock track in anticipated crowd-pleaser ‘Fallout’. Previously released as a single, the song encapsulates the indescribable mood of this album – an oddly anxious sense of acceptance. Despite surreal lyrics like “I want to fall out of time”, ‘Fallout’ feels like a nostalgic example of earlier, and similarly upbeat, Yo La Tengo songs. Though its motifs hark back to nineties indie rock, the song’s content is a mature take on present day angst. 

From This Stupid World’s fourth track, ‘Aselestine’, the album’s tone begins to shift. Hubley’s entrancing vocals shine through as the subsequent songs briefly embrace the more folk-inspired elements of Yo La Tengo’s music. ‘Until It Happens’ and ‘Apology Letter’ maintain this mellow lull, creating a pleasant breakpoint sandwiched between the anxious dread of the album’s start and finish. The latter is charmingly subdued, culminating in the depressingly ambivalent line “I can’t bear to look to see if this apology letter’s / returned unread”. 

"...losing themselves in the almost comforting existentialism they’ve become known for."

This middle segment of This Stupid World serves as a reminder of Yo La Tengo’s effective blending of genres and eclecticism. This structural choice cements their status as a simultaneous indie favourite and experimental fusion of musical ideas. It’s a change in tone and style that most would find hard to pull off over a mere nine songs, but Yo La Tengo achieve it seamlessly. 

After the cathartic instrumental outburst of ‘Brain Capers’, ambivalence returns once again to angst. This isn’t standard explosive teen angst, however. Instead, it’s mulled over, with penultimate track ‘This Stupid World’ exemplifying this. Yo La Tengo allow themselves to relish in the reverb, losing themselves in the almost comforting existentialism they’ve become known for. The shift is naturally jarring but manages to maintain the mood of the overall album. There’s something oddly satisfying about the spontaneity of these drawn-out instrumental passages – it’s easy to imagine the band lost in the music when recording, just as their lyrics mirror the feeling of being lost in deep thought.

This Stupid World is ultimately successful in its principal aim of engaging with an unsettling sense of impending doom. Yo La Tengo’s reassuring vocals and incorporation of lighter tracks to fill the middle of the album result in a body of work that captures abrasive uncertainty and soothing acceptance perfectly. The extensive instrumental passages are hypnotic, the vocal segments eerily transient. This Stupid World encapsulates the contradictions of profound ambivalence, once again demonstrating Yo La Tengo’s brilliantly eclectic creativity.  

This Stupid World is out February 10th

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More about: Yo La Tengo