Programming note: This week, I’m handing the car keys over to some special guests whose music tastes and opinions I respect enormously. I asked each of them to share an album they’ve had in heavy rotation this year. New release, hidden gem, genre classic, the choice was theirs. I hope you have as much fun reading these as I did. Stay tuned for more fun weekly themes to close out the calendar year. I’ll be back with fresh music picks on January 8.
Enjoy!
Hello! 😊👋
Welcome to a new edition of the Daily Music Picks newsletter!
Today’s music picks courtesy of guest writer
, who runs the excellent newsletter On Repeat with Kevin Alexander. Follow him on Substack, Instagram, and the platform formally known as Twitter. Today, he revisits a 90s indie gem that recently celebrated its 30th anniversary!Genre: Alternative, Indie Rock
Label: Matador
Release Date: October 5, 1993
Vibe: 😮
Early 90s indie music was marked by a lot of bands burning bright and burning fast.
They came, they rocked, and they imploded. Often in spectacular fashion. Some never to be heard from again. Others climbed out of the wreckage of one band and went to form a new one with a new sound. Meanwhile, Yo La Tengo was always there, steady as ever and churning out records.
They were content to be your favorite band's favorite band.
That's not to say they didn't have issues or skipped their own evolution. Before releasing their 6th record, 1993's Painful, they downsized from a quartet to a trio, played hopscotch between labels, and went through bassists at a Spinal-Tap level pace.
That all changed with this record.
The band had settled in with bassist James McNew (actually his 2nd record with the band), and he'd gone from "new guy" to an integral part of the group. They were settled in with Matador as their label as well.
That steadiness is reflected in the record itself. Previous YLT records had a bad habit of bouncing between walls of fuzz and something akin to folk rock. Appealing yet inconsistent. Ira Kaplan's vocals could verge into a bratty/sneering style. He has yet to lose his edge, but they've evolved into a more, if not congenial, then conversational style.
One of YLT's hallmarks is that any song feels like it could be remade in a dozen different ways. Much of Painful continues that tradition- see the two wildly different versions of "Big Day Coming" as exhibit A- but it also feels fully fleshed out. The record turned 30 earlier this year, but it’s the one I repeatedly return to. I can’t say the same for many of the records released around the same time.
The first lyrics we hear are "Let's be undecided," but Painful is a decisive statement record of a band fully formed, hitting its stride and never looking back.
👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈