by
Yo La Tengo
- Record Label: Matador
- Release Date: Sep 12, 2006
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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UrbA perfect album. [Sep 2006, p.143]
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Paste MagazineThe indie vets consolidate their talents, channeling the eclectic scope of their live shows into a 78-minute demonstration of control, confidence and imaginative songwriting. [Sep 2006, p.72]
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I Am Not Afraid Of You is a one-stop jukebox.
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The goofier bits and sloppy sunshine pop moments are really what make this an interesting and complete album.
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At 77 minutes it’s no sprint, but YLT’s mellifluous serpentines are never less than involving.
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For all their playfulness, the group's melancholy weighs down their music with an emotional gravitas that is rare among anorak bands.
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Entertainment WeeklyThey embellish what they long ago mastered: making shaggy, dreamy, cuddly, explosive indie rock. [15 Sep 2006, p.72]
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I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass is a bloated, overreaching long-player in the tradition of bloated, overreaching long-players like Sign O' The Times, Exile On Main Street, and London Calling. But it's also business as usual for Yo La Tengo.
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Everything they've done well in the past is found on here somewhere.
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I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass is a delirious jumble, the rare album that holds together because of the sheer audacity of its diversity, rather than being torn asunder by it.
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Yo La Tengo have nothing left to prove and this allows them the room and scope to simply showcase their talents, which are many and admirable as well as being both under-exposed and under-appreciated.
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If there's a bit less childlike élan here than in the past, there's also an intelligence and joy that confirms Yo La Tengo is still one of the great treasures of American indie rock, and they haven't run out of ideas or the desire to make them flesh in the studio just yet.
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I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass is nothing if not dazzling.
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I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass is the statement of a band insistent on showing the world it is not quite through being relevant.
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MojoAnother wonderful, intimate love letter to pop. [Sep 2006, p.94]
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Good luck finding a better straight-up indie-pop/indie-rock record this year (save TV On The Radio) that's as uninhibited, unique, and flawlessly all-over-the-place as I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass.
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This is Yo La Tengo in full 32-flavors mode, but somehow, as with similarly diverse past efforts like I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One, they make it all sound cohesive.
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All in, this is probably their best work.
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Almost everything that YLT can do - and largely do so well - is here, alongside a sizeable smattering of new tricks and treats.
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Mostly though, it’s status quo.
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As eclectic as the disc is, it never strays from that warm sense of familiarity.
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A wane in consistency in its latter half keeps I Am Not from achieving the heights of Yo La Tengo’s best work, but it will unquestionably satiate their rabid fanbase awaiting a return to eclecticism while re-establishing Ira Kaplan’s status as an early fifty-something guitar god.
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Defiantly eclectic.
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BlenderThis trip is an easy, late-summer cruise. [Oct 2006, p.142]
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On the first spin this is a set of highly listenable light pop tunes. However, this is by no means insubstantial and some real gems begin to reveal themselves.
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SpinYo La Tengo remain true to their Velvet Underground roots. [Oct 2006, p.105]
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It's hard to imagine any other band with as much indie cred that could succeed with this material; it would be too audacious.
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Rolling StoneTwenty years after their debut, Yo La Tengo are in full command.
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Q MagazineTheir best since '95's Electr-O-Pura. [Oct 2006, p.127]
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UncutSounding like a highly-evolved amalgam of their entire output--with added surprises--the beauty of this 12th album lies in its head-spinning diversity. [Oct 2006, p.134]
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FilterThey've trimmed away the electronic tinges and space-jazz tendencies of recent years, leaving us with a sharper, more focused Yo La Tengo. [#22, p.93]
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Under The RadarWhile I Am Not Afraid may be more sonically diverse than Summer Sun, both albums indicate that Yo La Tengo are less worried with breaking new ground than gamely exploring the territory they’ve already uncovered. [#15]
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Alternative PressThis disc is actually a better recap of the Yo team's past than last year's triple-disc best-of collection. [Nov 2006, p.190]
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MagnetThis return to form annotates the band's last 22 years rather nicely. [#73, p.110]
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[It] casts a long shadow.
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What's most remarkable about this stylistic portmanteau is that every song is an original even though you assume several are among their shoulda-been-a-hit-but-wtf-is-it? covers.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 59 out of 63
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Mixed: 1 out of 63
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Negative: 3 out of 63
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May 8, 2022
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May 29, 2020
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RobbieCSep 14, 2007