Yo La Tengo

In the world of rock music, being effortless is an often overused and oversaturated expression used to describe a band’s playing abilities, which of course often tends to be a fallacy. Rock music is too cool to care. Nonetheless, indie-rockers Yo La Tengo have, hands-down, mastered the art of sounding effortless and organic in their artistic expression. Yo La Tengo certainly has it with the release of its 13th studio album, Fade.

“Sometimes the bad guys go right on top, sometimes the good guys lose,” is chanted on the first and most upbeat track on the album, “Ohm,” delivering a quick taste of what the group has to offer. Just like it’s lyrical content, the group is very kind sounding, very soft-spoken, and honest.

What “Ohm” is for the band’s lyrics in a nutshell, “Is that Enough” is a great example of its style of instrumentalism. Slight hums, buzz-y guitars, and friendly gentle vocals all dress up the orchestration which leads to a thick layered song that sounds so off the cuff and honest it could be described almost as Beatle-esque.

Not surprisingly, this almost 30-year-old band’s sonic maturity goes beyond what any other indie rock outfit is doing. Tracks from “Well you better” to “Before We Run” are all so easy to absorb despite their unique sounding structure; it’s this sense of familiarity to them that makes this band so easy to pick up. If one is ever in the mood for a kind sounding orchestration, be sure to check out Fade by Yo La Tengo.