Allow me to ramble on about the magic of Yo La Tengo (I could bore the pants off anyone in a 5 mile radius about bands this great!)... the obvious heir to The Velvet Underground's throne (so much so that they performed as them in the I Shot Andy Warhol film many years back!).

Not too many bands would have the liner notes of their 'best of' consist of someone telling a story about the time the band cancelled a show at the last minute because they found out it was at a nudist camp - but then again this is the same band who printed a brutal piece of hate mail on one of their earlier albums that called them no talent f**ks who would go nowhere cause they had no respect for their audience and couldn't play their instruments.
It is this self-effacing 'whatever-ness' that Yo La Tengo can afford because deep down they know they are one of the greatest bands going around - and time will prove them right.

Yo La Tengo ARE the exception to the rule that the only thing that married couples should create together are babies: from their early fumblings in a pseudo-folk-rock kinda way ala The dbs or Green On Red, through their 'golden age' (my opinion of course...) of guitar workouts of the early to mid 90s (I could start an entirely new ramble about the genius of their "Painful" album - one of the great lost albums of the 90s) down through the heavy organ / keyboard drone epics found on their recent albums, Yo La Tengo have maintained an obscenely high level of quality control - and considering the early stuff on here (from 3 decades ago!) doesn't sound outdated that's some sort of effort.

It's when they hit a groove and time seems to stand still that they are perfect - "Tom Courtenay", "Blue Line Swinger", "I Heard You Looking" etc (the exclusion of "Mushroom Cloud Of Hiss" is a real shame - 10 minutes of guitar chaos that they have yet to beat).

I don't want to ramble on about the lack of passion in music 'these days' because I realise how close that could come to "back in my day" waffle - I only bring this point up after having noticed that Maroon 5 (yes, Maroon 5!!!) have a signature edition CAR available in the states - but if you dig that little bit underneath the surface you still can find some amazing music out there...somehow Yo La Tengo have been at it for 20 years with little appreciation and Maroon 5 are sitting back sipping cocktails and endorsing cars. Strange world we live in...

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Shaker
2. Sugarcube
3. Barnaby, Hardly Working
4. Little Eyes
5. Stockholm Syndrome
6. Our Way to Fall
7. From a Motel 6
8. Swing for Life
9. Tom Courtenay
10. I Heard You Looking
11. You Can Have It All
12. Did I Tell You

Disc 2:

1. The River of Water
2. Autumn Sweater
3. Big Day Coming
4. Pablo and Andrea
5. Drug Test
6. Season of the Shark
7. Upside-Down
8. The Summer
9. Tears Are in Your Eyes
10. Blue Line Swinger
11. The Story of Jazz
12. Nuclear War (version 1)
13. By the Time It Gets Dark