Not faded

Yo La Tengo is emerging as the kind of band you grow old with — knowing how your tastes change and changing along with you, sometimes suggesting places you only might've gone. While putting Tortoise/Sea and Cake vet John McEntire at the console for their latest album might seem like a jump back to their more youthful '90s days, songs like this seem very much of the present. Which is to say, vaguely happy with where we are and yet quietly terrified of what's to come. Hearing it, I see bearded artisanal craftsmen libating at the beer garden in the late afternoon sun, stroller parked at arm's length, bobbing along to this melody, and imagining a time when they'd all be drunkenly belting it out together at the top of their lungs.

Yo La Tengo - Ohm