Yo La Tengo: Painful Vinyl LP with Download

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Why you'll love it

Painful is where Yo La Tengo found their signature sound, hazy and hypnotic, the record Robert Christgau called "Hoboken's answer to My Bloody Valentine."

This edition

120g vinyl
Mastered at Sterling Sound
Download card included

About the album

Every great band has the album where it all clicks, and for Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley and James McNew it's this one. Their first record for Matador swaps the scrappy jangle of their early work for drones, feedback and soft, sleepy melodies that sound like they were recorded at three in the morning.

"Big Day Coming" shows up twice, once as a slow organ hum and once as a fuzzed-out rocker, "From a Motel 6" is a buzzing gem, "Nowhere Near" is achingly pretty, and "Sudden Organ" swirls into psychedelia.

Critics heard echoes of UK shoegaze and New Zealand indie pop, and Christgau gave it an A-minus. It opened the door to I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One and everything that came after.

Also at Kops: more Yo La Tengo on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Side A
1. Big Day Coming
2. From A Motel 6
3. Double Dare
4. Superstar-Watcher
5. Nowhere Near

Side B
1. Sudden Organ
2. A Worrying Thing
3. I Was The Fool Beside You For Too Long
4. The Whole Of The Law
5. Big Day Coming
6. I Heard You Looking