Fade into Some New Music

Some new titles are starting to turn up in the music CD collection these days as our ordering season is ratcheting up and 2013's first releases emerge from the musical tundra of winter. With the year barely a month old it's probably premature (if not wholly misguided) to start penciling in your favorite records  already but that's exactly what I'm prepared to do. It's just the first week of February--but I'm perfectly happy to carve the name of Yo La Tengo's new record (Fade for those keeping score) in my forehead now so I can't forget in December how much I enjoyed this record through mid-January's terrible chill. Fade was recorded in Chicago last summer with John McEntire (Tortoise, The Sea and Cake) and ranks comfortably among the band's best and might be their most personal statement yet. Check out the band's first video in fifteen years, beautifully shot by long time associate Phil Morrison for the stark  Bert Jansch-like "I'll Be Around":

Fade is Yo La Tengo's 13th full-length album in 29 + years -- and it's as clear and as declarative a statement to a music career that I've heard from a band that I've been following for at least as long. Listening has been a supremely satisfying ride, and I'm happy to hear them in 2013 so comfortable, confident and in total control of their considerable musical powers. Other bands would have cooled the wheels of the touring bus and exhausted their creative ability long ago but Yo La Tengo keep on keepin' ON. They come to the plate and deliver yet another batch of heartfelt songs. I'll spare you a full history of the band (you can read that here) but I'll leave you with another song, some kinda weird inverted anthem for the times, with modest (almost child-like) lyrics that reveal a simple truth, an unfortunate reality that "Sometimes the bad guys come out on top, sometimes the good guys lose, we try not to lose our hearts, not to lose our minds" before they suggest we not lose hope and try make the best of each moment: "lose no more time, no time".

So, yeah, there's still hope in the end, so long as Yo La Tengo are still coming out on top.