Yo La Tengo
Popular Songs
(Matador)
Yo La Tengo's Popular Songs opens with the promise of something new. "Here to Fall" features dramatic, swooning strings pitted against processed organ drones, a thrilling combination of '70s soul swagger and modern electronics that's held together by an understated-but-earnest melody. It's a bit of a letdown when the rest of the album settles into familiar patterns, alternating between slow-motion ballads like "By Two's" and surging garage nuggets like "Nothing to Hide." These songs are fine in themselves, but they're becoming overly familiar within the band's catalog. More successful are the insouciantly funky strut of "Periodically Double or Triple" and soulful vamp of "If It's True." The album ends with three epic pieces totalling 36 minutes. "More Stars" successfully marries churning rock and dreamy melodies, but the two guitar-driven instrumentals wear out their welcome and bring an otherwise satisfying album to a close with a shrug. —Jeff Jackson
Vince Guaraldi
The Definitive Vince Guaraldi
(Concord)
Vince Guaraldi will forever be "the guy who did that awesome Peanuts song." That tune—properly dubbed "Linus and Lucy"—may bring on a flood of childhood memories for a lot of people, but it holds up to closer scrutiny, too. It's a piece of musical genius: there's little else quite like it. It's far more playful than most anything else in the serious jazz world of the early '60s, and it's a sort of rarefied, rollicking version of rock and roll without the strong backbeat. It's also one of the catchiest melodies and clever arrangements of its era, with wonderfully unexpected changes in feel just when things get grooving. Which is all to say that Vince Guaraldi deserves more than a casual listen. This two-disc collection of Guaraldi's work showcases the pianist/composer in many moods, and is a consistently entertaining voyage. —James Heflin
Erin Mckeown
Hundreds of Lions
(Righteous Babe)
Four years ago, after the release of her last album of original material, I heard Erin Mckeown explain that she had been on the verge of moving to New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina changed her plans. Since then, she's released a live album and one of Tin Pan Alley covers. Hundreds of Lions owes a lot to the mannered sophistication of those Depression-era songs. As usual, her lyrics are sharp and smart, as is the production. Early in the album, she carries the melodies of many of the songs with her rich, lilting voice, accompanied only by a percussive, plinking beat. These songs feel a little like outtakes from a Kurt Weill musical. Less skeletal songs such as "The Rascal," "28," and "Minneapolis" are more satisfying. Compared to her earlier work, though, the album is sadly funk-free. I wonder what it would have sounded like if she'd driven that U-Haul south. —Mark Roessler
