Matador Records
2003
Summer Sun
About This Album
Three years after 2000's brilliant And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, Yo La Tengo returns with Summer Sun, an album that's as settled and smooth as the previous one was inventive and eclectic. Musically, Summer Sun continues the band's progression away from intricate, guitar-based pop both loud and soft and toward an arguably more sophisticated sound. This move resulted in masterpieces like I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, which balanced their roots and their ambitions perfectly; on Summer Sun, it feels a little bit like a retreat. This time around, the post-rock, Krautrock, and jazz influences the band introduced on I Can Hear the Heart and perfected on And Then Nothing dominate Summer Sun, giving it a hushed, polished feel. Sometimes, this approach works, as on the lovely opener "Beach Party Tonight," which sounds appropriately warm and full of possibilities, and "Tiny Birds," a droning, spiralling track that sounds a bit like a fusion of post-rock and Pet Sounds. However, the fusion-inspired instrumental "Georga Vs. Yo La Tengo" and the jammy, ten-minute "Let's Be Still" veer dangerously close to noodling and bloat the album's length to over an hour; unfortunately, there's not quite an hour's worth of interesting music here.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 11)

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