MY FAVOURITE THINGS - YO LA TENGO'S MUSIC

It’s well after six and I’m still at the office. There is a little meek sunlight trapped in the top of the scrub maple down the gravel lane opposite, and a pale lemony parallelogram about the size of a decent window high on the wall of the old limestone rental property, but there’s no denying the light is failing out there. It’s a melancholy state of affairs and, well, it’s October - docks are being hauled out of the northern lakes, and woodsmoke twists like a grey scarf around the shagbark hickory. All of that suits me just fine. I’m happiest when I’m a little sad.

I’ve been listening to Yo La Tengo since about 1997, when they released I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One, a top ten album for me all day long. We’ve drifted in and out of each other’s orbit a bit since then (career, kids, death, taxes, etc etc) but more than a quarter century later, in 2023, the band returned with one of its strongest albums, This Stupid World. Apology Letter is a standout from that collection. The version here is from the Bunker Sessions, a live EP recorded after the album’s release. You can (and really should) look up the whole five-song video. They are the gentlest, quietest, loudest, most restrained, most out of control, most beautiful band I know.