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Yo La Tengo - Painful Audio CD

A fair review of the Yo La Tengo "Painful" 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: Painful
Rating:
Release Date: 1993-10-05
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Big Day Coming 2: From a Motel 6 3: Double Dare 4: Superstar-Watcher 5: Nowhere Near 6: Sudden Organ 7: Worrying Thing 8: I Was the Fool Beside You for Too Long 9: Whole of the Law 10: Big Day Coming 11: I Heard You Looking

Painless indeed!
It's one of those records that works best when you just pop it in and let it go - no skipping lengthy end tracks like Spec Bebop or Night Falls on Hoboken, no being jarred by odd juxtapositions of song genres like on I'm Not Afraid of You. You know those albums that spend so much time in your stereo that you're always afraid you're going to burn yourself out on them, but then that never happens because they're just that good? That's Painful. . . - just a very cohesive record filled with lots of guitar distortion over some sweet melodies. If you own only one Yo la Tengo album, this should be it! .


Quietly powerful.
While it would end up being a lower-key affair than anyone would perhaps have expected, "Painful" is the first album where they seem to have struck that balance. Yo La Tengo's early records show a band that's looking for something-- they bounce between riff based rock adn folk songs, feedback and jangly guitars, seeking a balance.

Opening with a gentle, circular organ motif, repetitive guitars, throbbing bass and a whispered vocal on the first version of "Big Day Coming", the piece is almost Eno meets Yo La Tengo, especialy when Ira Kaplan's feedback-drenched lead hits, managing to be both noisy and subdued at the same time. This ends up being the formula for the record-- striking that balance between noise and a swirling ambient stew, whether it's driven by a distorted bassline and a buzzsaw of a lead guitar (single "From a Motel 6") or a rising, circular organ and a subdued, gentle vocal ("Nowhere Near"). One thing it manages is to be is consistently fantastic, whether completely subdued ("A Worrying Thing") or more aggressive (riff-based second version of "Big Day Coming"). Start to finish, "Painful" proves to be a completely satisfying record. It's missing something that makes me think of it as a masterpiece, but it's incredibly good. Highly recommended.


Yo La Tengo's Second Best
Despite it's dreamy sound, Yo La Tengo's music is anything but apathetic or detached: it is drenched in reverb that sounds like pathos, distortion that sounds like anger, vocal harmonies that sound like love. Painful is actually a quietly brooding melodrama. In essence, Yo La Tengo found the perfect formula to paint love songs and heartbrake songs behind impressionistic soundscapes that only the skillful instrumentation of the band members could convey. Painful is probably the first complete Yo La Tengo album in this vein, and surely the first great Yo La Tengo album. The eclecticism is present - but not jarring - the compositions piece together like a ride on gently, swelling waves.
I must admit, almost everything you see in "Painful" can be found to an ever greater measure on "I Can Hear the Heart Beating As one". This later album, made in 1997, is Yo La Tengo's masterpiece. And while it doesn't radically shift the aesthetic established on "Painful", it is entirely essential - while Painful is by no means made obsolete.

To complete the YLT experience, also buy "I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One" and "And Then Nothing turned Itself Inside Out"

Rating: 9. 3/10.


Yo la tengo best
No, that I think they're bad or something. I'm not into Yo la Tengo music so much that i'd own all their records. No, i really think their work is very good, and as people i think they are one of the coolest people around in music biz. But they use and recreate some formulas that doesn't touch my innerself and i need that in music. This record does it. That's why i have is this one that i think it their crown jewel. Their Velvet-SonicYouth influences are here but they went ahead of them - they created their own home coziness, typical Yo la Tengo coolness that they make in all their albums but unfornatelly only on a couple of songs, here is the whole album. .


Almost their best
This album is a close second as best album in the band's ouevre (with "I can hear. . " as #1). For anyone wanting to check out this band or not knowing where to go after "I can hear. . . " this is the album. .


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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