Sleepless Night

About

An undeniable affinity links Japanese artist Yoshimoto Nara and New Jersey indie rockers Yo La Tengo; both exploit the high/low divide between fine art and pop culture to create works imbued with nostalgia and a hard-to-name emotional pull. After meeting in 2003, Yo La Tengo and Nara remained in regular contact; when LACMA organized a retrospective of Nara’s work, he asked the band to contribute an EP of cover songs, selected in collaboration with him, and one new original. The fruit of that request, <i>Sleepless Night</i> gathers songs the band recorded as far back as 2000, including outtakes from the sessions for <i>And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out</i> and <i>Stuff Like That There</i>. The Delmore Brothers’ often-covered 1949 staple “Blues Stay Away From Me” gets a faithful reading, right down to the close-harmonized vocals and clean-toned guitar solo—the hooting owl is Yo La Tengo’s own addition—and country vibes also drive the gentle twang of The Byrds’ “Wasn’t Born to Follow,” a centerpiece of the <i>Easy Rider</i> soundtrack. Georgia Hubley takes the mic on “Roll on Babe,” turning the folk rock of Ronnie Lane’s band Slim Chance into a kind of echo-soaked ambient jangle pop, and her turn on Bob Dylan’s “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” is even more atmospheric; the most radical reinterpretation of the set, it’s the furthest they travel from their source material. Their version of The Flying Machine’s 1969 hit “Smile a Little Smile for Me” comes close, though, smoothing the original’s Beatlesque psych into a hushed lullaby. Yo La Tengo’s own “Bleeding” is just as lovely, spinning Ira Kaplan’s whisper-soft baritone into a watery pool of guitar tremolo and ethereal haze. Though it’s not a cover, you could almost believe it was the trio’s tribute to the Cocteau Twins.

via Apple Music