| I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Yo La Tengo | ||||
| Released | April 22, 1997 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock, noise pop | |||
| Length | 68:10 | |||
| Label | Matador Records | |||
| Producer | Roger Moutenot | |||
| Yo La Tengo chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Rolling Stone | [2] |
| Robert Christgau | A[3] |
| Pitchfork | (9.7/10)[4] |
| Spin | (9/10)[5] |
I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is an album by Yo La Tengo. It was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee and mixed in New York City. The album was released on Matador in 1997, and "Busy with My Thoughts" appeared on the Japanese version, the song also available as the b-side to the "Sugarcube" single.
An insert parodied the marketing leaflets that are sometimes inserted into the jewel case for a compact disc, promoting other products from the same label. It "advertised" albums by imaginary artists, like "Condo Fucks", "Unsanitary Napkins", "Künstler" in a variety of genres - riot grrrl, college rock, smooth jazz, stand-up comedy and Broadway musicals with "the soundtrack from Heroin! performed by the original cast." In 2008, Yo La Tengo followed up on the joke by releasing Fuckbook, an album of covers credited to the Condo Fucks.
The album's sound is a blend of various genres, such as folk ("One PM Again"), rock ("Moby Octopad"), shoegazing ("Deeper Into Movies"), noise pop ("Sugarcube"), long noise jams ("Spec Bebop"), ambient ("Green Arrow"), and bossa nova ("Center of Gravity"), with a few songs showing electronic music influences ("Autumn Sweater"), which would be more deeply explored on the band's following album, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out. The track "Stockholm Syndrome," sung by bassist James McNew, has been described by Robert Christgau as a "simulated Neil Young ballad."[3]
The album, like many others by Yo La Tengo, contains two cover songs: "Little Honda," a Beach Boys tune by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, and "My Little Corner of the World," written by Bob Hilliard and Lee Pockriss and made famous by musician and anti-gay activist Anita Bryant. The latter song lent its name to the soundtrack of the television show Gilmore Girls, entitled Our Little Corner of the World: Music from Gilmore Girls, where it was featured alongside music by John Lennon, Black Box Recorder, PJ Harvey, and others.
I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is among the most critically acclaimed albums by Yo La Tengo, placing 5th in the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1997.[6] The album has continued to earn acclaim since its release, ranking at #25 on the list of the Top 100 albums of the 1990s by Pitchfork,[7] and #78 on Spin's greatest 90 albums of the 1990s.[8] Robert Christgau, in his review for Spin, called the first nine songs "perfect" and called out the song "Autumn Sweater" as the "very peak" of the album.[5] He referred to the album as one of his "favorite albums of the year, easy," alongside those by Pavement, Sleater-Kinney, and Arto Lindsay,[9] and his review of the band's 2003 album Summer Sun praised I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One as Yo La Tengo's "career album."[10]
All songs written by Yo La Tengo, except where noted.
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