I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One

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

Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo
(1996)		 I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
(1997)		 And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
(2000)

I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is the eighth studio album by the American indie rock band Yo La Tengo, released on April 22, 1997 by Matador Records. It was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee and mixed in New York City. The album received considerable acclaim from music critics. In 2010, Rolling Stone placed the record at number 86 on its compilation of 100 Best Albums of the Nineties.

Recording and release

I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One was recorded at House of David in Nashville, Tennessee and mixed at Big House and Magic Shop in New York City. It was released on April 22, 1997 by the independent record label Matador Records and reached #19 on the Heatseekers Albums chart.[1] Three songs from the album, "Autumn Sweater", "Sugarcube", and "Little Honda", were released as singles or EPs. As of March 2000, the album has sold 73,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan.[2]

Music

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 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.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic [3]
Chicago Tribune [4]
Robert Christgau A[5]
Pitchfork Media 9.7/10[6]
Rolling Stone [7]
Spin 9/10[8]

I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One received considerable acclaim from music critics. AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the album as "an astonishing tour de force from Yo La Tengo, establishing their deep talents as songwriters and musicians".[3] In his review for Spin, Robert Christgau called the first nine songs "perfect" and called out the song "Autumn Sweater" as the "very peak" of the album.[8] The track "Stockholm Syndrome", sung by bassist James McNew, has been described as a "simulated Neil Young ballad".[8] Christgau referred to the album as one of his "favorite albums of the year, easy", alongside those by Pavement, Sleater-Kinney, and Arto Lindsay.[9] In a very positive review, Greg Kot highlighted the album's diverse influences: "the spooky soundscapes of British trip-hop ('Damage') and the electro-trance of Stereolab ('Spec Bebop') rub shoulders with a revved-up Beach Boys cover ('Little Honda') and a jazzy goof ('Moby Octopad')."[4]

I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is included on several publications' best album lists. The album appeared at number five in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1997.[10] In 1999, the album was ranked number 78 on Spin's list of The 90 Greatest Albums of the '90s.[11] In 2003, Pitchfork ranked it number 25 on its list of the Top 100 albums of the 1990s.[12] Similarly, Rolling Stone placed the record at number 86 on its 2010 compilation of 100 Best Albums of the Nineties.[13] In 2012, the album appeared at number 22 in Paste's list of The 90 Best Albums of the 1990s.[14] In his review of the band's 2003 album Summer Sun, Christgau praised I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One as Yo La Tengo's "career album" and stated that they "[will] never top it."[15]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Yo La Tengo unless otherwise noted. 

No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Return to Hot Chicken"    1:38
2. "Moby Octopad"    5:48
3. "Sugarcube"    3:21
4. "Damage"    4:39
5. "Deeper into Movies"    5:23
6. "Shadows"    2:27
7. "Stockholm Syndrome"    2:51
8. "Autumn Sweater"    5:18
9. "Little Honda"  Brian Wilson, Mike Love 3:07
10. "Green Arrow"    5:43
11. "One PM Again"    2:25
12. "The Lie and How We Told It"    3:19
13. "Center of Gravity"    2:42
14. "Spec Bebop"    10:40
15. "We're an American Band"    6:25
16. "My Little Corner of the World"  Bob Hilliard, Lee Pockriss 2:24
Total length:
 68:10

References

  1. ↑ "I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One - Awards". Allmusic. Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  2. ↑ Elysa Gardner (2000-03-12). "Yes, Three Can Be Company, Not a Crowd". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One". Allmusic. Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Greg Kot (1997-05-02). "Yo La Tengo I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One...". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 2014-05-26. Retrieved 2014-05-26.
  5. ↑ Robert Christgau. "Yo La Tengo". Robert Christgau website. Archived from the original on 2012-06-03. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  6. ↑ Jason Josephes. "I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on 2000-08-16. Retrieved 2000-08-16. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  7. ↑ Matt Diehl (1997-04-15). "I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2011-09-19. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Robert Christgau (June 1997). "I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One". Spin 13: 118–119. Archived from the original on 2013-08-15. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  9. ↑ Robert Christgau (1998-02-24). "The Year of No Next Big Thing". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on 2002-06-25. Retrieved 2012-08-03.
  10. ↑ "The 1997 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. 1998-02-24. Archived from the original on 2013-08-15. Retrieved 2013-08-24.
  11. ↑ Jon Dolan (September 1999). "The 90 Greatest Albums of the '90s - 78: I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One". Spin 15 (9): 158. Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2013-08-24.
  12. ↑ "Top 100 Albums of the 1990s (Page 8)". Pitchfork Media. 2003-11-17. Archived from the original on 2013-09-28. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  13. ↑ "100 Best Albums of the Nineties (Page 86)". Rolling Stone. 2010. Archived from the original on 2013-11-08. Retrieved 2014-01-09.
  14. ↑ Josh Jackson (2012-02-24). "The 90 Best Albums of the 1990s (Page 7)". Paste. Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2013-08-24.
  15. ↑ Robert Christgau (2003-04-15). "Beating As One". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on 2013-08-16. Retrieved 2013-10-04.

External links