Yo La Tengo I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass CD

Yo La Tengo: Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan, James McNew.
Additional personnel: Roger Moutenot (acoustic guitar); David Mansfield (violin); Garo Yellin (cello); Jim Hoke (saxophone); Steven Herrman (trumpet); Bill Huber (trombone).
With 2006's cheekily titled I AM NOT AFRAID OF YOU AND I WILL BEAT YOUR ASS, the beloved indie-rock trio Yo La Tengo presents a dynamic set of songs that echo the band's past, while notably downplaying the soporific atmospherics of preceding discs (the lauded AND THEN NOTHING and SUMMER SUN). The New Jersey-based group opens with "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind," a feedback-drenched guitar workout anchored by pulsing, insistent rhythms, which is followed by the jaunty "Beanbag Chair," a charming pop ditty that percolates under Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley's breezy vocals. Other highlights of this eclectic record include the beautifully orchestral "Black Flowers" and "The Room Got Heavy," a quirky electro tune. Essentially a well-chosen crossroads for most of Yo La Tengo's various stylistic paths, I AM NOT AFRAID distills the ensemble's decades-long history into a willfully varied and always-engaging album.
After the elegant, introspective romantic narratives of And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out and the beautifully crafted but restrained pop textures of Summer Sun, it was hard not to wonder if Yo La Tengo was ever going to turn up the amps and let Ira Kaplan go nuts on guitar again. For more than a few fans "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind," the opening cut from YLT's 2006 album I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, will feel like the reassuring sound of a homecoming -- ten minutes of noisy six-string freak-out, with James McNew's thick, malleable basslines and Georgia Hubley's simple but subtly funky drumming providing a rock-solid framework for Kaplan's enthusiastic fret abuse. After the thematic and sonic consistency of their previous two major albums, I Am Not Afraid marks a return to the joyous eclecticism of 1997's I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, though nearly ten years down the road Yo La Tengo sounds noticeably more confident in their embrace of different styles and less hesitant in their technique on this album -- even Kaplan's gloriously unkempt guitar solos start to suggest a certain degree of well-earned professionalism. The songs also sound a shade less playful and more disciplined, though the group's ability to bring their distinct personality to so many different styles attests to their continuing love of this music and the quiet strength of their vision -- the neo-Byrds-ian psychedelia of "The Race Is on Again," the homey horn-punctuated pop of "Beanbag Chair," the plaintive folk-rock on "Black Flowers," the aggressive Farfisa-fueled minimalisms of "The Room Got Heavy," and "Daphina," which suggests a John Fahey track transcribed to piano and then used as the root for a eight-minute exercise in low-key atmospherics, all function on a different level and each one satisfies. What's both engaging and impressive about I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass is that, as usual, these 15 songs always end up sounding like Yo La Tengo, whether they're upbeat guitar pop or dense loop-based drones, and if there's a bit less childlike élan here than in the past, there's also an intelligence and joy that confirms Yo La Tengo is still one of the great treasures of American indie rock, and they haven't run out of ideas or the desire to make them flesh in the studio just yet. ~ Mark DemingRolling Stone (p.68) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "They begin and end the album with high-energy psychedelic guitar trances that break the ten-minute barrier without dragging for a second."
Rolling Stone (p.107) - Ranked #36 in Rolling Stone's "The Top 50 Albums Of 2006" -- "[T]his is the most effortlessly spectacular music Yo La Tengo have made in years."
Spin (p.105) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Ira Kaplan's crew opts for diversity, flitting gracefully from ornery psychobilly to falsetto soul to twinkling folk rock."
Entertainment Weekly (p.72) - "[T]he palette's expanded; horn arrangements and lonely strings spike their familiar bass-drum-guitar-keyboard mix, and they even pull off some vintage R&B moves." -- Grade: A
Uncut (p.134) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]here are passages of gorgeous dreampop, splintering rock and space-drone, culminating in the epic 'The Story Of Yo La Tengo'..."
Alternative Press (p.190) - "Two freakouts neatly bookend some of the most winsome songs ever recorded by the trio. Clearly, Yo La Tengo aren't aging gracefully -- just abnormally well."
Magnet (p.110) - "Jubilant brass-backed jams rub shoulders with various staples of the YLT stable: heartrending harmonizers, jazz/pop parfaits and droning, palindromic bookends that never want to end..."
The Wire (p.64) - "Yo La Tengo know how to craft the classic pop song, but they're also keyed in to the world of jazz and rock improvisation, utilising both armouries with equal efficacy."
CMJ (p.43) - "Drummer Georgia Hubley's twee musings subsequently make the perfect complement to her husband/frontman Ira Kaplan's brown-acid, WHITE ALBUM lullabies."