Yo La Tengo - Painful
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Free Music Notes for Painful
Free Music Review: Not their best, but just a essential.
Hit: 4 Stars
This is the Yo La Tengo album that made me become a fan, because way back when MTV actually played alternative videos I saw the "From A Motel 6" video and thought it was the greatest song. Unbeknownst to me, this song is the most unYo La Tengoist of all of their songs. While later albums, such as "I Can Still Hear The Hear Beating" and "Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out" far surpass this collection, nevertheless this is essential owning. Yo La Tengo's approach to this recording is one of mellow and slow guitar freak outs (Big Day Coming (version 1) and I Heard You Looking) combined with beautiful ballads (The Whole Of The Law and Sudden Organ), and pure pop in the vein of Sonic Youth (Big Day Coming (version 2) and From A Motel 6). While the aura of the VELVET UNDERGROUND are all over this album, Yo La Tengo manage to inffuse their own drone-like leanings through the use of organs in place of John Cale's Violas. Overall, this is pleasant listening and not as Painful as Yo La Tengo may think.Free Music Review: Big disappointment, then and now
Hit: 2 Stars
I'm sorry, but I must part company with everyone who hails this album as terrific. I once corresponded with Ira about this album and its moods & tones, expressing both my love for the band and its vision, and my disappointment with this album's emptiness. If emptiness is what you want, here it is... in droves.The closer is the only good song on this album. I own every piece of YLT except their very latest "And Nothing...," and I truly feel that this album is their weakest. Historically, it is bracketed by two fine albums, "May I Sing With Me" and "Electr-O-Pura," each of which is much finer and deeper than this album that is sadly appropriately named "Painful." When I first got this one, I expected the squalling feedback and lashing chords of some of Ira's better live moments (I've seen them at least 5 or 6 times), but instead was greeted with a cover of "The Whole of the Law" and other soft, atmospheric stuff. Even the workout version of "Big Day Coming" is pure atmosphere.
Buy it to complete your collection, buy it just for the closing track, or buy it if you like uncharacteristically monotonous undeep stuff from a VERY dynamic and deep band.
Free Music Review: Painless on the ears
Hit: 5 Stars
As far as Painful's place in Yo La Tengo's entire work goes - it is a great example of an earlier album that points to the direction they are currently heading. With an electric edge, enhanced by the perfect amount of feedback and distortion Painful represents a departure from previous indie-pop/rock albums. On this album vocals, take a back seat to the music. Yo La Tengo's Painful has a great flow from start to end. It begins with the slower of two versions of Big Day Coming to ease the listener into the album. It quickly picks up speed into Double Dare followed by a teary-eyed Nowhere Near. The album's mood continues to change until it hits the rougher, but equally great, version of Big Day Coming. Finishing off the work (fitting in almost as if a hidden track), I Heard You Looking leaves the listening wondering where they just spent the last hour.Free Music Review: Brilliant record
Hit: 4 Stars
I think I'm addicted to this album. This is where Yo La Tengo really started getting into sonic exploration, while remaining true to their rootsy, pop-rock origins. Washes of dreamy organ alternate with jagged, reverb-heavy guitars and ringing feedback, creating an organic, heterogenous body of sorts that flows and ebbs with inscrutable rhythms. Some might find it all a bit too droney, but I love the effect. "From A Motel 6" and "Double Dare" offer hooks galore, and who can ignore the untouchable purity of "Nowhere Near"? Their musical sensibilities were really starting to prove uniquely fluid and intuitive, as the two completely different versions of "Big Day Coming" point to. The first, the album opener, is built around a gentle repeated organ motif, and slides and throbs gently like waking up slowly on a Saturday morning. The other version has what sounds like very heavily reverb'd guitar, harsh and unforgiving, but I think it's actually organ. That one, while not particularly pleasant in and of itself, is interesting in being a totally different take on the same song. It all ends with an awesome jammy instrumental, "I Heard You Looking," which gradually builds and overflows upon itself, until towards the end the guitar part devolves into total beautiful chaos at the climax before returning to form. Nobody knows how to pull off a heart-pounding, climactic album-closer like Yo La Tengo. This album I just keep coming back to for more.
Free Music Review: Painful
Hit: 5 Stars
Yo La Tengo is a hard band to get to know. You have your hardcore fans telling you to listen to every release ever made and it's hard to know where to start. If you haven't already heard anything by this band, shame on you, and start here. Of course most have and know that YLTengo took elements of the Velvet Underground (May I Sing With Me), added more melody, and moved deeper into the freak out jams. This is Hoboken in love with the Lower East Side.Although each release is strong, Painful seems to be the closest thing to a perfect album by them. It mixes tenderness with raw power with pop. My favorite is "From a Motel Six" which has a great buzzsaw guitar sample in it. Also the breezy "Double Dare" and the long hypnotic instrumental "I Heard You Looking" is amazing. Painful is great stuff and you have to hear it for yourself. Trust me.