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Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo
Odds-and-ends compilations rarely feature a band's best work, but surely that's what makes them fun. There's a certain voyeuristic thrill in hearing all those weird B-sides, dusty outtakes, alternate versions, and obscure covers the band never thought to put on an album. But wait: Yo La Tengo are already weird and thoroughly alternative, and they've long made a practice of reworking other people's music. What, then, is new about Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo, the group's two-CD rarities collection? Well, the great thing about Yo La Tengo is that they sound new even when they're doing the same old thing. In an indie-rock genre that demands originality, Yo La Tengo have defiantly flirted with life as the coolest cover band in the world. Out of the attics and onto Genius + Love come renditions of songs by Wire, John Cale, Beat Happening, the Urinals, the Velvet Underground (whom YLT depicted in the 1996 film I Shot Andy Warhol), Daniel Johnston (with Johnston providing lead vocals over the phone), and the Ramones (an easy listening version of "Blitzkreig Bop"). In addition, the album features cuts from the band in all its moods and periods between 1988 and '95, from early dream-pop and Velvety dark minimalism to disciplined Sonic Youth guitar noise, plus an entire second disc of instrumentals. Thirty tracks in all, Genius + Love may be the first rarities collection to satisfy the needs of both obsessive completists and beginners looking for an accurate introduction to the group. --Roni Sarig
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Tracks| 1 | Evanescent Psychic Pez Drop | | 2 | Demons | | 3 | Fog Over Frisco | | 4 | Too Late | | 5 | Hanky Panky Nohow | | 6 | Something To Do | | 7 | Ultra-Powerful Short Wave Radio Picks Up Music From Venus | | 8 | Up To You | | 9 | Somebody's Baby | | 10 | Walking Away From You | | 11 | Artificial Heart | | 12 | Cast A Shadow | | 13 | I'm Set Free | | 14 | Barnaby, Hardly Working | | 15 | Some Kinda Fatigue | | 16 | Speeding Motorcycle | | 17 | Nutricia | | 18 | Her Grandmother's Gift | | 19 | From A Motel 6 #2 | | 20 | Gooseneck Problem | | 21 | Surfin' With The Shah | | 22 | Ecstasy Blues | | 23 | Too Much, Part I | | 24 | Blitzkrieg Bop | | 25 | One Self: Fish Girl | | 26 | Enough | | 27 | Drum Solo | | 28 | From A Motel 6 #1 | | 29 | Too Much, Part II | | 30 | Sunsquashed |
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