Yo La Tengo - I'm Not Afraid Of You And I'll Beat Your Ass Album Review

Yo La Tengo
I'm Not Afraid Of You And I'll Beat Your Ass
Album Review

This is Yo La Tengo's 10th album, the product of 20 years of indie rock that has headed all over the shop - pop to jazz to 60s revival and electro-dance. I'm Not Afraid Of You is one of the band's more relaxed albums, and effortlessly mature, with a sound that can best be called impressive pop, but with layers of quality that 'pop' doesn't properly convey.

Imagine (if it doesn't mess with your head) the Scissor Sisters mainlining Velvet Underground or the Pixies and you won't be far away. It's fun, rewarding, and it sounds as though a good time was had in the making. The experimentation largely pays off. If there's a criticism, it's that the album rarely burns itself into the attention span - it's more nice, solid, good... Words like that, rather than 'outstanding', 'excellent'. More focus on one style would be good, but that's not Yo La Tengo's modus operandi.

Rating 7/10

Mike Rea