Summer Sun

Yo La Tengo: Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan, James McNew.
Additional personnel includes: Daniel Carter, Sabir Mateen (flute, alto & tenor saxophones); Roy Campbell, Jr. (trumpet); William Parker (upright bass).
Recorded at Alex The Great Studios, Nashville, Tennessee.
Building on the lush, complex sound established on I CAN HEAR THE HEART BEATING AS ONE and continued on 2000's AND THEN NOTHING TURNED ITSELF INSIDE-OUT, Hoboken's favorite trio wades in still deeper on 2003's SUMMER SUN. With vocalist/guitarist Ira Kaplan affecting a whispered croon and his drummer wife Georgia Hubley wielding brushes, this outing goes from the vibraphone jauntiness of "Moonrock Mambo" to the swirling, 10-minute "Let's Be Still" featuring contributions from downtown jazzbos William Parker and Roy Campbell Jr. Like a musical narcotic, songs like "How to Make a Baby Elephant Float" and "Tiny Birds" bob along in a current of humming keyboards and the underpinning of James McNew's understated bass playing. Breaking up this gentle excursion through the ether are "Georgia Vs. Yo La Tengo," a chugging number with watery-sounding effects and a repetitive piano run threaded throughout, and the samba-like "Winter A-Go-Go," which sounds like the Zombies slow-dancing with Buffalo Springfield. Succumbing to their penchant for beautifully executed offbeat covers, Yo La Tengo dips into the Big Star canon for an interpretation of "Take Care" that finds Hubley making like Hope Sandoval over a bed of dream-poppy acoustic guitar and pedal steel.