Til We All Break

Yo La Tengo “Sinatra Drive Breakdown”

A lot of guitarists let their guitar speak for them in solos but everything Ira Kaplan gets out of his instrument in “Sinatra Drive Breakdown” is like the result of a brutal interrogation. He slaps, slams, batters, and scrapes the thing up. A lot of the sound is just impact, but then he starts to coax more coherent melodies out of the thing. All of this is in contrast with a sedate but slightly tense groove and a demure vocal performance that makes Kaplan’s playing seem all the more unhinged and violent. The overall effect is an odd mix of soothing and abrasive, and the chaos in the guitar becoming a pleasant or at least interesting localized sensation while everything else in the mix numbs you out. It’s thrilling music to zone out to. Yo La Tengo have existed for four decades and this has long been a part of Kaplan’s style but what they achieve here feels special and new, like different aspects of their sound were always on course to finally converge like this.

Buy it from Bandcamp.