New Single from Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo are back for their 12th major release. Damn, they've been around for 22 years. They've got one year on your humble narrator.

Anyway, it's slated for a September 12 release in the U.S. It's called I'm Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass. I get it. It's ironic, but eh. You guys could do better.

See the irony here:
The new album's single, Beanbag

The single opens with spirited piano and catchy horn blasts. You think you're about to hear a musical number or some '70s gold, but then Ira Kaplan comes in with his customary sluggish vocals. Here, his melody is lighthearted but begs you for something. You're not exactly sure what it is, because the lyrics are whispered under the compact, but tasty honks of the 4/4 instrumentation. The vocals become their most memorable when the harmonies come in during the verse that seems to never quit. The harmonies wind in and out of the principal voice and are characteristically '60s pop. Kaplan's sylistic guitar is nowhere to be found, but for the better. The album's first single is nothing to get crazy over, but if this is representative of the themes Yo La Tengo will be flirting with, we're lucky to still have the band with us.