With its title, the new album from legendary indie rock band Yo La Tengo pays homage to Sly and the Family Stone’s seminal 1971 record, There’s a Riot Goin’ On. Like Sly did more than 45 years ago, Yo La Tengo hopes to serve up a musical balm for people living through troubled times. But Yo La Tengo’sThere’s a Riot Going On (notice the difference?) is a quieter affair than Sly’s work, with 15 songs that don’t call to mind unrest, but rather a drum circle at Burning Man. That’s no insult — songs like “Shades of Blue” and “Above the Sounds” leave listeners with a calm, meditative, all together pleasant feeling. The opaque lyrics make no reference to our current, anxiety-inducing political situation, and a few of the songs dreamily drift by without any words at all, while others are sung at a whisper. Essayist Luc Sante notes, “If records were dedicated to the cardinal elements, this one would be water. There are shimmery hazes, spectral rumbles, a flash of backward masking, ghostly flamingos calling ‘shoo-bop, shoo-bop.’” Perfect for your Earth Day listening pleasure if you want to keep it fluid.
Riot is Yo La Tengo’s first new collection since 2013’s Fade — an album that, despite its title, is much more upbeat and mainstream than Riot. Clearly, the New Jersey band, now consisting of Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan, and James McNew, is seeking calm among the storm, but it’s hard not to miss the toe-tapping style of their earlier work. Nonetheless, the instrumentation on Riot is as strong as ever, and you can’t fault the band for their laidback sonic approach to 2018; we all deal with the stress of today in different ways. (Matador Records)
This article is a part of the 2018 April / May issue of Whole Life Times.