WHAKAOHO 004: Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear The Heart Beating as One (1997)

 

WHAKAOHO 004

Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One (1997)

If you took away every album that Max has ever recommended to me, my all-time list would be half as long. Aside from my parents and my brothers he is a huge influence on my taste. He would have put me on this album in 2017, and it must have slipped through the cracks and never found its way to my ears. I have spoken about this album on here before in my short lived orange m&m series, where I properly dove into this record as a full listen head first, I have had it on repeat over the last little while.

This is really really something. Sitting in a record store with no one to talk to, practising driving on your own as the sun is shining, doing the dishes. When I hear the opening track: "Return to Hot Chicken" (potentially the greatest song title of all time), I am taken back to 2017. My friends and I would spend our time after high-school hanging out, eating cheap snacks from jadan near Max's place and (as far as my brain is capable of remembering) the sun was always close to setting. I have been thinking a lot recently about how much I have changed since this period of time, and getting older can be quite unnerving. This album really helps with that feeling. It is a deep breath.

The whole thing dances around the edges of the various sub-genres that indie rock takes, with songs that are slow and somber, some that are shoegaze-y and noisy, and some that are twee-pop. All of them work cohesively together. No track feels out of place and yet they are all different. Indie-rock albums often have a tendency to get old, or have a lack of creativity among the tracklist. But this album does not suffer any of those problems. 

Please listen to this album. It is very very very good.

- R

"Well it's One PM again

I guess I'm ready to begin,

And it's reeling, there's a feeling,

Let's not make any sudden moves"

Favourite songs:

"Sugarcube"

"Damage"

"Shadow"

"Stockholm Syndrome"

"One PM Again"

Listen:

https://yolatengo.bandcamp.com/album/i-can-hear-the-heart-beating-as-one-25th-anniversary-deluxe-edition

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfqWkY7RIxIVM8wJM4nT41RWgQBdMl2Ai