There's A Riot Going On

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合計収録時間 : 01:03:23
Audio Mixer: John McEntire. Photographer: Noah Kalina. When Yo La Tengo revealed that the title of their 15th album would be There's a Riot Going On, speculation ran wild among their online fan base. What did the title mean? Was the album going to be a broadside about the state of America in the Trump era? Was it going to be some sort of homage to Sly & the Family Stone's troubled 1971 masterpiece There's a Riot Goin' On? Or were these die-hard record collectors simply tipping their caps to the Robins' 1954 hit "Riot in Cell Block #9"? What no one seemed to guess was a band that's made a habit out of inscrutable album and song titles would simply be continuing in that great tradition. As it is, there's precious little that's riotous about 2018's There's a Riot Going On -- quite the opposite, it's one of the most languid and inward-looking albums Yo La Tengo have released to date. YLT made the album without a formal producer, simply recording themselves in their practice space (with bassist James McNew serving as engineer) and having John McEntire (who worked with the band on 2013's Fade) mix the tracks. The results find the band deep in atmospheric mode, with washes of loops and noise hovering in the background on most tunes while Ira Kaplan generates spare, ringing guitar figures, Georgia Hubley lays out her typically warm and implacable groove on drums, and all three members daub the surroundings with keyboards and percussion. Many of the selections on There's a Riot Going On are instrumental, and when the numbers do feature vocals, McEntire and YLT have pushed most of the singing deep into the mix, so if you were expecting this album to mount a soapbox, you'll be very disappointed. This LP is also short on Yo La Tengo's fractured pop sensibilities and Kaplan's volleys of noise guitar; instead, There's a Riot Going On is deeply introspective, 63 minutes of dreamy late-night musings and drifting soundscapes that's often very beautiful but demands to be met on the artists' own terms. There's a Riot Going On is, in its own subtle way, Yo La Tengo at their most uncompromised; it's an album that's likely to separate their most hardcore fans from more casual admirers, though if you loved "Night Falls on Hoboken" from And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, you'll likely savor it. ~ Mark Deming