LATEST ADDITIONS

Last night during the intermission between performances of Brahms’ Third and Fourth Symphonies, I stood on the Avery Fisher Hall balcony talking with a couple I didn’t know who were probably in their mid-sixties and I mentioned that I wrote about “stereo” equipment. They reacted with surprise, with the husband exclaiming, “Stereo. Now that’s an old-fashioned term. I didn’t think anyone used it anymore.”

It’s not often that a rock band remains together for more than 20 years and releases consistently swell records along the way, but Yo La Tengo has managed to do that, in part because Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley have beat the odds twice: managing to stay together throughout both as bandmates and husband and wife.

Despite the band’s name, there’s not much of a party going on in the lyrics of this UK quartet’s thoughtful second album. World events and how they affect today’s young people in the UK are at the core of the band’s viewpoint.

Listening to Spoon is best done as described in singer/songwriter Britt Daniel’s own words: “You gotta feel it/ Don’t take notes/ Just clear out your mind.” Fans of Spoon’s five albums and two EPs, issued over the past twelve years know very well the feelings brought to mind when listening to these songs: they range from yearning, heartbreak and frustration, to isolation and desperation, to tenderness, lust, and satisfaction from a job well done.