hypersongs

President Yo La Tengo

Their third album, the first with wide distribution, thanks to Coyote's A&M deal.
Yo La Tengo, 1989

Gene Holder produced and played bass on four tracks, with Stephan Wichnewski on the rest and John Baumgartner on accordion on the Dylan cover "I Threw It All Away". Tracks four and six were recorded at CBGB; "The Evil That Men Do (Pablo's Version)" is a live recording from May 1988 and runs 10:37. Hubley plays a bass solo on the opener and sings lead on "Alyda", her first prominent lead vocal on record, per Spectrum Culture. Matador reissued it in 1996. The studio is named Waterhouse on this album's page and Water Music, Hoboken, on Fakebook's.

AllMusic gave 4.5 stars, Christgau an A-minus, who said few Amerindie bands had stronger starts that year, the Spin Alternative Record Guide 9 of 10 and NME 7 of 10.

Track listing

  1. Barnaby, Hardly Working4:35
  2. Drug Test4:06
  3. The Evil That Men Do (Craig's Version)2:41
  4. Orange Song3:22
  5. Alyda3:39
  6. The Evil That Men Do (Pablo's Version)10:37
  7. I Threw It All Away2:17

More from Yo La Tengo

Ride The Tiger (1986), New Wave Hot Dogs (1987), Fakebook (1990), May I Sing With Me (1992), Painful (1993), Electr-O-Pura (1995), I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One (1997), And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (2000), The Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science (2002), Summer Sun (2003), I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass (2006), Adventureland (The Original Score From The Motion Picture) (2009), Popular Songs (2009), Fade (2013), Stuff Like That There (2015), There's A Riot Going On (2018), We Have Amnesia Sometimes (2020), This Stupid World (2023), Old Joy (2025)

Sources

  1. President Yo La Tengo, Wikipedia
  2. Discography: Yo La Tengo, President Yo La Tengo, Spectrum Culture (2022-01-20)
  3. Yo La Tengo, Robert Christgau