Yo La Tengo release new single, ‘Aselestine’
Yo La Tengo have just dropped the second single to preview their forthcoming album, This Stupid World. ‘Aselestine’ follows ‘Fallout’, the single released back in November 2022 alongside the announcement of the new record.
Following the blazing shoegaze-tinged powerhouse that is ‘Fallout’, ‘Aselestine’ brings the tempo down a notch for a gentle, dreamy and sentimental excursion, with Georgia Hubley taking lead vocals. The track is perfectly textured throughout, with subtle synths and well-placed lead guitar threads – it’s impossible to fault. These first two singles promise a breathtaking album next month.
This Stupid World is set for its full release on February 10th and will be accompanied by a supporting international tour, including a date at The London Palladium on April 14th, alongside further UK dates.
Following on from 2020’s five-track ambient effort, We Have Amnesia Sometimes, This Stupid World will mark the band’s 17th studio album.
According to press materials, the New Jersey indie legends recorded, produced and mixed the album at their own freedom, and within each song, there is a live band performance at the core before overdubs.
The absorbing and broadly improvisational tracks on This Stupid World have been described as “journeys, such as the three-dimensional swirl of ‘Brain Capers’, which blends guitar chords, bass loops, drum punches, and various iterations of [Georgia] Hubley and Kaplan’s voices (with lyrical references to Alice Cooper, Ray Davies, and Rick Moranis) into shifting layers, or the epic twilight wash of ‘Miles Away’ where a dubby rhythm lurks below Hubley’s bright paint-brush vocals. These touches, accents, and surprises make for a rarity: a raw-sounding record that gives plenty of headphone detail to get lost in.”
The album’s title and its corresponding track have a defiant declaration, suggesting a will to fight against the odds: “This stupid world – it’s killing me/ This stupid world – is all we have.”
Listen to Yo La Tengo’s beautiful ‘Aselestine’ below.
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