Yo La Tengo: Summer Sun

Last fall, Yo La Tengo released an EP containing four versions of Sun Ra's "Nuclear War" that sounded surprisingly scary, especially coming from a band that never sought to scare, even in its days of courting dissonance. Three years ago, the chorus of kids singing about kissing their asses goodbye might have connected only as black comedy, but the tracks take on a new immediacy with war, nuclear or otherwise, now more than an abstract possibility. The equally immediate Summer Sun sounds like Nuclear War's album-length B-side, a retreat into a quiet, private world where the threat of destruction (or external destruction, at least) remains permanently at bay. "Please don't be afraid, no matter how much out there scares you so," Ira Kaplan sings on "Season Of The Shark," an offer of shelter that sets the tone for the album. Not that the private sphere doesn't have its upsetting moments, too. "Nothing But You And Me" pleads for reconciliation, but its overall spirit suggests that forgiveness is never too far away. Much in the mold of its similarly gentle predecessor And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, Summer Sun finds Yo La Tengo in a twilight mood, interspersing instrumentals and one elongated jam (the tellingly titled "Let's Be Still") between atmospheric, quietly ingratiating pop songs. Few bands are this awake to the possibility that music can be both droning and catchy, and fewer still do it as well as Yo La Tengo does on "Little Eyes," which glides a sing-along chorus across a hypnotic keyboard backdrop. Georgia Hubley's beautifully sung cover of Big Star's "Take Care" brings the album to a close while summing it up, wrapping its comfort in a warning that the peace of the past can only last so long.