And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out - Yo La Tengo (2000)

Ideated From: “Essential winter albums” on Treble

I’ve never really known what to make of Yo La Tengo. They’ve been a “band I should probably listen to more of” since I was young enough to think an alt-rock-hipster goatee and ponytail didn’t make me look stupid.

There was some point in the late 90s where “alternative rock” gave way to something more subtle and expressive. These guys always seemed to be ahead of the curve on that. Personally, i was too immature as a listener to want to hear anything that didn’t blast my eardrums at the time, so I slept on this sort of proto-indie-rock. Whenever I hear stuff like this album, I’m sorry I missed out.

There’s such a mellow vibe here, but with an emotional current just under the surface. It’s not really anxious or nervous, quite the opposite really; it sounds like resignation, like we’ve blown through the worst and this is what life looks like on the other side. There’s a low-key funkiness to it that keeps it from being to maudlin. It’s a very grown-up record, which I suppose is why I resisted it at the time.

I guess the only problem here is that it doesn’t particularly remind me of winter. To me, it’s more like autumn, with a million warm colors of leaves blowing around in the breeze. But I’m working the list, and of course this is all subjective, so we’ll leave it in.

Tracks I liked:

Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House - I thought this was very pleasant but not great. Then i read along with the lyrics about a blood feud between Tony Orlando and Frankie Valli, and they’re just so witty it really transformed the song for me.

Last Days of Disco - seemingly inspired by the Whit Stillman movie of the same name, but I don’t remember it well enough to know for sure.

You Can Have It All - If you don’t identify with this cycle of rage and self-hatred that he’s describing here at least a little, I’m not sure what we have to talk about.