Yo La Tengo’s learned brand of pop pastiche has long since passed into indie-rock legend, which can make excitement about yet another album from the New Jersey trio paradoxically tricky to muster. At worst, their low-key eclecticism sounds refined to the point of being beige — but if a sense of staleness had begun to creep in round 2009’s ‘Popular Songs’, ‘Fade’ pretty much puts them back on track. ‘Ohm’’s raga-tinged drone and the crisp, string-flecked soul of ‘Is That Enough’ make for a handsome opening pair, while the rest has some of the subtlety and sad reserve of 2000’s ‘And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out’.
Alex Denney