Yo La Tengo's Second Best
Brian | California | 05/31/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Painful is actually a quietly brooding melodrama. Despite it's dreamy sound, Yo La Tengo's music is anything but apathetic or detached: it is drenched in reverb that sounds like pathos, distortion that sounds like anger, vocal harmonies that sound like love. In essence, Yo La Tengo found the perfect formula to paint love songs and heartbrake songs behind impressionistic soundscapes that only the skillful instrumentation of the band members could convey. Painful is probably the first complete Yo La Tengo album in this vein, and surely the first great Yo La Tengo album. The eclecticism is present - but not jarring - the compositions piece together like a ride on gently, swelling waves.
I must admit, almost everything you see in "Painful" can be found to an ever greater measure on "I Can Hear the Heart Beating As one". This later album, made in 1997, is Yo La Tengo's masterpiece. And while it doesn't radically shift the aesthetic established on "Painful", it is entirely essential - while Painful is by no means made obsolete.
To complete the YLT experience, also buy "I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One" and "And Then Nothing turned Itself Inside Out"
Rating: 9.3/10"