Released in 2000, the ninth studio album from trio Yo La Tengo is more ambient take on their indie rock sound. Muffled beats with a clattering of plates introduces the album on “Everyday”. The song has a darker, colder Joy Division like sound that cover the lyrics – “I hear Kate Moss talk, she talks to me/She’s looking for a new beginning every day”. Sung by drummer Georgia Hubley, she also takes the vocals on “Tears Are In Your Eyes” where she talks to a friend suffering from depression and reminds them, “Darkness always turns into the dawn”.
Sweetness pervades “Our Way to Fall”, memories of meeting a girl for the first time over a musical bed led by a 70s organ. The sound then later appears on instrumental “Tired Hippo”. “Last Days of Disco” sees guitarist Ira Kaplan sing of letting himself go at a dance party. The dissociative lyrics of second single “Saturday” has a drumbeat that almost sounds like a hiss then clatters at other moments. “Cherry Chapstick” sees the band go back to it’s roots of slightly buried vocals and crashes of guitars.
First single, “You Can Have it All” is a standout cover of a George McCrae sung with lots of “b aba babas” giving it an airy and cheery sound. “Madeleine” is a nice, easy going track that appears late in the album before closing with the 17 minute quiet epic “Night Falls on Hoboken”. In the intervening years since it was recorded, many publications sung the praises of And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out as a notable release of the 2000s. It’s an unsuspecting album with many layers of dark and cold then warm and funny. What’s remarkable, is that it keeps giving and never lags with great songs spread throughout.
8/10
The Light Appears 