This Stupid World

This Stupid World sees them further consolidate their position as alternative treasures.

Yo La Tengo feel more alive on This Stupid World than they have in years – which isn’t to say that their more recent efforts were lacking in any way. The songs here just crackle and spark with an innate energy and unpredictability not heard since 2006’s I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass.

This Stupid World is an album that both confronts and ameliorates its fears. It deals in both luxury and sparsity, weaving both into a heartwarming whole. It’s a remarkable feat for a band this far down the road to create something that feels like a potential classic, both timely and timeless, a record that pushes the edges of darkness, all the while offering a reassuring light.

This Stupid World is just a particularly timely chapter in the modest saga of indie rock’s most unassuming institution. Its songs capture not only the darkness so many of us feel with each waking day but also the impulse to keep waking, to keep going.

They’re on fire here and now, reassuringly within that sound world you’re familiar with but – perhaps because the album is self-produced – sounding freer, looser and more magnificent than ever. ... A band who’ve clearly lost none of their miraculous touch with their sources, who incredibly seem to have an entirely new lease of life. [Mar 2023, p.60]

On This Stupid World, Yo La Tengo proves they are still relevant arbiters of rock.

Clattering drum machines and gorgeous washes of tone are topped off by a standout vocal turn that carries the album off into the clouds, a searingly emotional purge and soothing balm all rolled in one.

The New Jersey trio’s most engaging album since 2000’s And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out.

Vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Ira Kaplan, percussionist and pianist Georgia Hubley, and bassist James McNew sound as fresh and relevant now as they ever have.

Yo La Tengo have been doing what they do long enough that they know and trust their process, and This Stupid World doesn't seem radically different from their work of the last 10 or 15 years. That said, this music feels warmer and more emotionally satisfying than anything YLT have given us since 2009's Popular Songs.

‘This Stupid World’ is another wonderful instalment in their extensive catalogue.

It’s not perfect – the title track is seven and a half minutes you might better use boiling eggs – but it is its own small wonder, as every Yo La Tengo album seems to be.

The result is a far livelier and live-sounding album than one would expect from a group this deep into their career.

With three of the nine songs clocking in at over seven minutes-long, every note is earned and necessarily. Extended instrumental breaks and outros never feel gratuitous, if anything they allow the listener to fall deeper into the song, to lose track of time.

This Stupid World, the Hoboken trio’s first proper full-length in five years (not counting the ambient lockdown quickie We Have Amnesia Sometimes), is very good indeed, a dreamy and reflective song cycle that welcomes us into Yo La Tengo’s private world while leaving ample mysteries unexplained and secrets untold.

Yo La Tengo have only intensified rather than showed signs of abating. [Mar 2023, p.77]

On This Stupid World, the forlorn ambience is more lived-in and close-to-home than it’s ever seemed in the past. ... A record like this makes easing towards the abyss feel a little less painful.

It's also the group's most exciting, most engaged, most breathtaking album this century. [Mar 2023, p.85]

This is familiar YLT, but that's certainly not a complaint. ... Even with two-thirds of the band in their mid-sixties, a childlike quality remains. [Mar 2023, p.36]

Wide-ranging and full of thoughtful lyricism focused on the passage of time, life, and death, This Stupid World is exactly the album I’d hoped Yo La Tengo could and would release in 2023. Even if this record remains a step below the band’s defining releases, it’s a strong contender for their best outing in over two decades.

Reflective and funny, Yo La Tengo would be forgiven for recording endless victory laps at this point. Instead, they continue to defy.