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Yo La Tengo - Little Honda Audio CD

A fair review of the Yo La Tengo "Little Honda" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Yo La Tengo reviews here, or go back to the Yo La Tengo tabs.

Yo La Tengo Band: Yo La Tengo
Title: Little Honda
Rating:
Release Date: 1998-03-10
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Little Honda 2: Be Thankful for What You Got 3: No Return 4: Black Hole 5: How Much I've Lied 6: By the Time It Gets Dark 7: Little Honda 8: We Are The Champions

one of their best jokes


Lou Reed had a thing about songs with the line "It's alright" or "It was all right" (Five year old Jenny in 'Rock and Roll'). I've always loved that cover of Little Honda, although if you buy the Hearts Beating as One LP you'll get a full album's worth of great songs. Someone in Yo La Tengo tuned in to the fact that riding the Honda was mucho-alright too. (the word is in the song Little Honda four times every chorus). Put two and two together, and you come up with one of the best cover songs from that era. Velvet grunge with a Lou Reed vocal and, of course, it's alright. Cool song.


Covers EP.


The title track, originally from the Beach Boys, is one of the great covers by Yo La Tengo, sticking to the original attitude of the piece without embracing its sound-- the band drives the piece off a distorted guitar riff framing a confident and attitude-drenched vocal from guitarist Ira Kaplan. One of several singles from I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, "Little Honda" is an EP of cover songs-- six studio performances and two unlisted live takes. It's presented in both the album cut and a live take. The latter is lacking a bit, the vocal sounds a bit more assertive and misses some of the swagger the studio cut presented.

The rest of the covers are kind of a mixed bag-- William DeVaughn's "Be Thankful For What You Got" finds the band slinking into an r&b groove with a laid back, two (and sometimes three) part vocal harmony, but largely, it feels a bit too detached for me to really enjoy it. Both the Kinks' "No Return" and the Urinals' "Black Hole" get '60s pop with jangly guitar readings that don't do it for me. The band turns torwards their folky/country side for covers of Gram Parson's "How Much I've Lied" and Sandy Denny's "By the Time it Gets Dark". Both are pretty good renditions, but by and large, I never loved Yo La Tengo's folk stuff, although "By the Time It Gets Dark" is absolutely fantastic, pretty stuff with a nice two part vocal. The record closes with a fairly goofy cover of Queen's "We Are the Champions", there's not a whole lot to say about it other than that.

The EP is fun, but honestly, Yo La Tengo's done a lot better covers than the stuff on this record. Only diehard fans need this one, everyone else can skip it.


YLT covers
'By The Time It Gets Dark' appears on their recent 3 CD compilation but the rest are otherwise unavailable. This outstanding EP includes studio and live versions of the title track as well as five obscure covers. This aptly complements the classic 'I Can Feel The Heart Beating As One' and is strongly recommended for all YLT fans. .


tricked
It turned out to have some of my favorite yo la tengo songs on it. I bought this at a record store thinking it was a full length album. Although I felt the 8 dollars I paid for it was a bit too much for an E. P. I now see that its out of print and selling for up to 25 dollars!! I guess I win this time.


YLT is aspiring to be a best kept secret cover band!
If you love Yo La Tengo then undoubtedly you have seen them perform live, and every show is a treat to see what cover song they'll play in the encore. . Little Honda is a gem of these, with the best cover of "Be Thankful For What You've Got" I have ever heard. My other favorite track on this disc is "How Much I've Lied" which has some of the most brilliant true to life lyrics Ira's ever breathed.


You can see a complete list of all Yo La Tengo discography, or go back to the Yo La Tengo tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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