Posted: 03/07/07

An album you should own:

Yo La Tengo
I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One, 1997 Matador.

Mike Morris | managing editor
mmorris2@smcvt.edu

Yo La Tengo was around for 14 years before recording this great album. Some of those albums had great pop songs, others had great art rock noise songs, but none felt as whole as I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One does, with songs like Autumn Sweater managing to be both charming and layered; pop, sure, but not without talent or vision. The album as a whole strikes this balance, and with remarkable focus for a three piece band.

The album opens with the noisy Return to Hot Chicken, which sets the tone both musically and with its odd title (see: Moby Octopod, or Spec Bebop). It’s an instrumental with a fuzzy base—not the instrument—track and shoegazer guitar riffs layered on top. This concept of tracks being built from the ground up is carried throughout the album as track after track builds both on itself and the band’s ability, often in surprising ways. The otherworldly distortion on the cover of the Beach Boys’ Little Honda that manages to maintain the playfulness of the original is one such example of the band’s skill in some of the more intangible aspects of good music—mood, tone, atmosphere. Imagine Lou Reed and John Cale picking up their instruments on a sunny beach and you start to get Little Honda.

Little Honda is preceded by Stockholm Syndrome and Autumn Sweater, two of the strongest tracks on the album, and a concise introduction into the stylistic variance of the record and the band’s later history. The former is a tight airy number, with bassist James McNew singing the vocal and supplying the bounce of the low end. It’s a quick song, over sooner than I wish it would be, but has plenty of repeat-listening-value and a catchy chorus.

No, don't warn me
I know it's wrong, but I swear it won't take long
And I know, you know,
It makes me sigh; I do believe in love.  

Kind of sweet considering that the title refers to the psychological condition of hostages who begin to feel loyal to their hostage-taker. I believe in love too, but on those terms? 

Autumn Sweater is a slower song driven mostly by four organ chords that builds like a canon, with bass and hand drums being added to the song after each verse and meandering through a few lines before a return to the minimalist leader. Lead singer Ira Kaplan’s vocals sound fragile yet composed and oddly fluid, as if he were singing underwater, and are placed low in the mix to great effect. The song closes with each element dipping out, leaving us with the four organ chords and a melodeon line.  

I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One is a sprawling album, with 16 tracks and totaling over an hour in length. It would take too much of your (and my) time to detail all the other great songs here, because, by my count, I’d still have 12 to discuss. I’ll mention others quickly, but I think you’ll just have to trust me that this is one seriously good album.  

One PM Again is Ryan Adams without the attitude, and with a great bed of slide guitar holding the track together. The Lie and How We Told It is built around a droning guitar line and sung in some strange and compelling harmonies. Center of Gravity is an island Bossa Nova tune, and is unlike anything Yo La Tengo had done to this point. Spec Bebop is a noise freakout, if you couldn’t tell by the title. We’re an American Band isn’t a Grand Funk cover, but it’s still really cool. And the closer, My Little Corner of the World is a short, tight and incredibly charming cover of a song made famous by Anita Bryant.  

Come along with me to my little corner of the world
Dream a little dream in my little corner of the world
You'll soon forget that there's any other place
Tonight, my love, we'll share a sweet embrace  

And if you care to stay in my little corner of the world
We could hide away in my little corner of the world
I always knew that I'd find someone like you
So welcome to my little corner of the world  

And if you care to stay in our little corner of the world
We could hide away in our little corner of the world
We always knew that we'd find someone like you
So welcome to our little corner of the world.  

It’s like ending an album with a thank you note to the listener. Its low-fi 60s sound is a perfect way to end the genre-defying album. Grab yourself some headphones, this disc and find a corner to listen in. It will be worth it.