Music critic Milo Miles on the new Yo La Tengo album, Fade:

if I had to pick a favorite tune on Fade, most endearing, fresh but characteristic, it would be “Is That Enough” Kaplan’s extended sigh about the ambiguities of love in a long-term couple. Whether it’s unsaid jokes or undeclared affections, he notes “there’s just no way that it’s enough.” Kaplan even casts a quick shadow of despair when he sings “what can’t come back’s what we can’t bear to lose.” But the music and words on Fade as a whole are pure affirmation of life and living. For Yo La Tengo, if what they have is not enough, it’s plenty.

Yo La Tengo has a new album out called Fade and today on the show Milo Miles is going to share his thoughts on it. In the meantime, here’s a preview in the form of a video for one of the songs off the album. It’s called “I’ll Be Around” and the video was directed by Phil Morrison (of Junebug fame)

Over at the Paris Review Online, one of my favorite writers — John Jeremiah Sullivan — has a short essay about the tension between religious belief and religious music. It is also an essay about a new collection of old country music —Work Hard, Play Hard, Pray Hard — collected by Kentuckian Don Wahle, who kept the records in boxes until the day he died. Says Sullivan about the track “Beyond the Starry Plane”:

From the abyss of the static come “dear Mother” and “no matter what I do” and “we shall meet again” and “Jesus is my God.” I listen to this song and imagine Don Wahle listening to it, leaning forward to hear it better. An infinitesimal point of communion, a shared pause before the obliteration.

Sullivan also wrote the liner notes for the collection, which Milo Miles reviewed for Fresh Air a few weeks back.

-Nell

Image by Tennessee Home and Farm via Flickr Commons

Music critic Milo Miles on the new collection of old-timey music Work Hard, Play Hard, Pray Hard:

A number of spoken skits are done as introductions, ideal for an audience used to listening to music on radio programs with a vaudeville format. And why so many fiddles making sounds like mules and trains and hounds? Well, listening to such stuff in your home was the hi-tech special effect of the early 20th century.

Although he’s only been playing for 10 years, Yirga is quite the sponge. His mix of folk vernacular and jazz improvisations in vintage Ethiopian tunes most recalls a similar folky fluency in South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, who likewise has no use for categories of high and popular art.

- Milo Miles reviews the debut album of Ethiopian pianist, Samuel Yirga

The Analog Players Society was assembled by producer and percussionist Amon. From Milo Miles’ review of the album, Hurricane Season in Brooklyn:

Albums made by collections of professional studio players once had a bad reputation with the traditional rock audience. Such works were supposedly arid and chilly — more like the results of a board meeting than the recorded adventure of an organic group of fabulous friends. Some music fans may still feel that way, but they are few. Nowadays, a tight-knit gaggle of session musicians like the Analog Players Society gets points from traditionalists simply because the music is made by flesh and blood…

Another aspect of Hurricane Season in Brooklyn that might make purists suspicious is that the album works both as a party soundtrack and as a quick-changing jam that’s delightful while you sit in a chair. I would argue that this is a strength of successful studio-pro workouts: The sass and variety of Amon’s arrangements and writing tickle the body while the smarts and deftness of the playing captivate the mind.

A dozen years ago, if someone told me that one of the liveliest, most inventive party albums of the year would come from a band originally associated with wedding celebrations and beer festivals, I would have been all, “Yeah, sure, you bet.” If it was further explained that the band’s roots were much closer to polka than rock, funk or hip-hop, I would have responded, “Don’t push it.” But nowadays, I’m familiar with the Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar, whose retrospective Golden Horns will lighten the heart and lift the feet as surely as anything you’ll hear in 2012. I’m just glad the band finally released an irresistible introduction. 

— Milo Miles reviews Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar

A new anthology from the Putumayo label celebrates the variations in African blues. Critic Milo Miles says the collection is delicate, airy and strong all the way through.

During the last 20 years, bachata has risen from the back country of the Dominican Republic to take its place next to salsa in concert halls. Milo Miles considers bachata’s humble beginnings and the continuing appeal of its simpler side.

Milo Miles reviews a compilation of Turkish grooves that carry on psychedelic styles long after they were dropped in the U.S.

The New York trio Battles and the Chicago-based experimental rock band Cheer-Accident come from very different directions. But critic Milo Miles says that both groups have recently put out their most appealing records, without losing their cerebral side.

The tributes tossed at the foot of Elvis’ slab included flowers and teddy bears, but also a giant-sized Butterfinger bar, getting all bent and wrinkled in the Southern rainstorm that day. At first, I thought somebody should take it away. Then I decided it was perfect. He’s a big hunk of timeless candy made from sex, schmaltz, sass — indeed, Elvis has something for everyone.

— Music critic Milo Miles visits Graceland for the first time.

Since the 1960s, the electric guitar has provided a bridge between international folk cultures and modern pop music. An example today is the singer and guitarist Bombino from Niger, whose album Agadez contains currents of blues and rock — along with traces of African folk.

Critic Milo Miles takes a listen to the latest album from Brazilian drummer Cyro Baptista: “The ideal of blending diverse styles never disappeared. One of the most enduring proponents is percussionist and bandleader Cyro Baptista. He’s from Brazil, but his real native land is the recording studio and on stage. Baptista is a regular collaborator with John Zorn and, like Zorn, you never know quite what his records are going to sound like. Indeed, Caym, Baptista’s latest project with his group Banquet of the Spirits, uses a dozen themes written by Zorn as starting points. But all the tracks take off in unpredictable, though satisfying, directions.”

Music critic Milo Miles on the wild career of the Queen of Latin Soul: La Lupe has never been given as thorough and carefully selected a retrospective as the two-disc anthology Puro Teatro. If there’s any cultural justice, it should redeem her completely. She was much more than a wild woman — she was a whole gang of them at once.