Yo La Tengo - "Popular Songs"

What I've always loved most about Yo La Tengo is that they are constantly, consistently, and unwaveringly able to release record after record of quality indie pop without even a wink of popular acclaim or notoriety. Sure, they get some Pitchfork-love and have a solid, albeit content and quiet following, but try bringing up Yo La Tengo in conversation anywhere other than a Mexican Little League infield and see what kind of bewildered, trying-to-think-back-to-high-school-Spanish-look you get.

It's like they exist underneath a veil of mist on the floor of Music, and the only way you might stumble upon them is if you drop your keys and bend below that mist to pick them up. Chances are, you'll want to stay down there to listen, because very few bands are this nice and talented and fun. But then again, how often do you drop your keys when you're standing in shin-deep mist? That's the narrow window of dynamic we're talking about here: it's a pinhole of access that opens to a wide gulf-of-career that will grab you at every turn and morph you into a reflexive mirror of pleasantry. Popular Songs is the latest mist-covered release, and once again Yo La Tengo deliver a great record that will largely go unnoticed in the ebb and flow of mainstream media.

And this is a good thing. Not because more people shouldn't be exposed to their music--I'm not one of those guys who claims to be so indie that I will threaten to kill the members of the band so no one else can hear them but me--but because this is their niche in the overall scheme of American popular music: to be not very popular. Popular Songs feels like a literal joke in this sense. And as long as they inhabit this niche, Georgia Hubley will continue to rip out hearts with subtle, slight changes of chord ("By Two's), Q-tipped guitars will continue to make amicable street-wandering melodies ("Nothing to Hide"), and long-ass instrumentals will continue to be the perfect soundtrack for doing something else ("The Fireside" and "And The Glitter is Gone"). So don't buy this record. Unless...