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I Can Hear My Heart Beating As One With Yo La Tengo.
Yo La Tengo have always been a bit of a weird band with me. Long ago, I bought I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, because it had "Sugarcube" on it. I figured the whole album would be full of "Sugarcube"s and when it didn't burst into life like that, I discarded it in a fit of petulance. I didn't pay much attention to them after that, aside from the aforementioned single and "Tom Courtenay".
But then, last week, some four years after buying I Can Hear..., YouTube recommended I watch a video of Yo La Tengo performing "Today Is the Day" on the John McEnroe Show (I know, wtf?). So I did and it was awesome. More than awesome, actually: it was sublime. All squalling solos and fuzz, like twee turmoil. I completely fell in love with it and thought "Why have I ignored them for so long?" But when I went to download the song, to hear the recorded version, there was this weird, lilting kind of Hawaiian tune and I didn't really like it. After a bit of reading, I discovered that they did that 'rock' version for the single, while the Hawaiian ballad style was on the album Summer Sun. And while that's cool, it's also kind of annoying, because I would've gone out to buy that album, expecting to hear the version I'd fallen in love with.
I decided to listen to I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One last night, just to see if I was wrong about it. What a fool I was four years ago! It was like an epiphany, I had suddenly become aware of all this beautiful, melancholic music that I'd been shunning for years full of heartwarming melodies and ice cold guitars. I was wrapped up and rocked in a quilt of gorgeousness. I love Yo La Tengo.
Here comes the bit where you tell me what to get next, preferably something that does adhere to the "Sugarcube"/"Tom Courtenay"-shoegazing-power-pop, if they ever made an album that was totally like that. A few "We're An American Band"s wouldn't be too bad either. Can you fill me in?