Yo La Tengo reaches album number 13 with Fade (Matador). They do so with a bit of a flourish, sounding like a band that is so used to the studio that they come through "naturally" but with a pretty big sound.
It's the lyrical side of the band that has the flourish. It's post-Feelies neo-post-psychedelia. And it seems to me the music will be recognized as familiar-new rock by all the generations for which the late-'60s were either formative, or pre-conscious, or even pre-birth periods.
The song form thrives, the arrangements bring on reverse retro-rockets firing us into the future. In what sometimes seems a vast cultural wasteland out there, Yo La Tengo can survive and make real music that doesn't try and "product" you with its presence.
This is why they deserve to be where they are. Number 13 is lucky, auspicious, very good music. So leave your yeasty sludgepots behind and come on over to this one. That is, if you need some songs to wallpaper your present-day life. . .
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