Average Metacritic score is 79 (25 reviews):

by Yo La Tengo
Popular Songs (Matador)
Release Date: September 8
Metacritic Ranking: 80 (4 star review)
Pitchfork: 7.9




http://www.tinymixtapes.com/Yo-La-Tengo,9578

Although it contains a good number of surprises, Popular Music ultimately finds a kinship with other Yo La Tengo releases, namely in the fully canonized I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One and, with its adroit ability to shift style and theme from song to song, in the near-universally lauded I Am Not Afraid of You and I Am Going to Beat Your Ass. It’s not quite as immediately compelling as these albums, but Popular Music still triumphantly carries the band’s 25-year legacy. Ranging from pastoral, fragile pop songs to 15-minute noise jams with equal skill, it packs many delights for fans both casual and hardcore.

Popular Music lives up to its title from the start, as opener “Here to Fall” immediately evokes Curtis Mayfield with 1970s soul-era orchestration and an understated funk rhythm. The song rolls forth with a bubbling urgency, as Ira Kaplan sings, “There’ll be some happy endings/ There’ll be dreams that won’t come true.” The song forecasts the dense, unpredictable fabric that is to follow, like a Georgia Hubley-sung twee ballad, country-tinged jangle pop, psychedelic organ blasts, and quietly orchestrated lullabies that vaguely resemble those of good friends and occasional tour mates Lambchop. “And the Glitter is Gone,” which ends the album, is a more familiar, 15-plus-minute noise freak-out that might be Yo La’s most beautiful yet, as the song unspools melody lines from its own squealing din.

In spite of its unique styling and contemporary sonic assimilations, this album also bares a sense of nostalgia indicative of a veteran band. On “All Your Secrets,” the last ballad on the album, Ira Kaplan sings “If there’s things that I’m afraid to know/ I should have learned them long ago” and “As the days ahead become behind/ Plays the tape as we rewind.” It’s unavoidable not to conjure the album cover here – a well-worn, busted cassette tape – a mere specter of audio technology as well as an emblem for how music stakes roles in our lives. But what also defines Popular Music is what it lacks, which is the band’s near-patented Velvet Underground-styled drone pop and amp-fueled guitar rockers like I Can Hear the Heart’s “Sugarcube” and “Little Honda.” In fact “Nothing to Hide” is the only overt “rock” song on the album.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Kaplan said, "I would say I don’t put a gigantic premium on originality. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with music reminding you of something else." Keeping in line with this sentiment, the intro for “If It’s True” mimics, note for note, the 1965 Four Tops’ hit “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch).” Here they celebrate the sounds that surround us, the ones vital enough to be culled and stretched into something new. And in these notions, the unifying aspect of Popular Music’s songs — and a defining characteristic of Yo La Tengo in general — reveals itself: that often, the greatest works of creativity come from the most likely places.

by Jeff Roesgen
4 Stars

You know this leaked about the time when I was going through my first ever Yo La Tengo obsession. I was pretty underwhelmed by the album overall though, despite that. I haven't listened to it much since. It's good, but I think I need to give it more time to really like it.

This has an outside shot at my Top 20. Kind of like The Eternal, it's not up there with their best or anything but I ended up liking this much more than I expected.

ok album. has some of the attitude and teeth that "i am not afraid of you" did but i don't like the songs as much.

yeah i need to re-visit this.