Yo La Tengo is one of rock’s most enduring bands. After 38 years their relentless experimentation comes to fruition on their 16th studio album, “This Stupid World,” brilliantly toggling between loud and quiet textures.
Guitarist Ira Kaplan shreds his way through extended instrumental breaks with a compelling mastery of psychedelic tone that aids in the listener getting lost in time. There are truths to to told in the lyrics but they take a back seat to the raw noise that is sometimes the priority.
Kaplan’s wife, drummer Georgia Hubley turns in some of her most brilliant and understated vocals that act as a anditote to the tension shared among the songs.
After so long as and indie rock stalwart, Yo La Tengo’s “This Stupid World” is most exciting for it’s feeling of newness, as if the band has just come into their own. As one of the songs ruminates “We know how this thing ends” but they are not ready to give in to the passage of time just yet.
