I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
Encyclopedia
I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is an album by Yo La Tengo
. It was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee
and mixed in New York City
. The album was released on Matador
in 1997, and "Busy with My Thoughts" appeared on the Japanese version, the song also available as the b-side to the "Sugarcube" single.
An insert parodied the marketing leaflets that are sometimes inserted into the jewel case for a compact disc
, promoting other products from the same label. It "advertised" albums by imaginary artists, like "Condo Fucks", "Unsanitary Napkins", "Künstler" in a variety of genres - riot grrrl
, college rock
, smooth jazz
, stand-up comedy
and Broadway musicals with "the soundtrack from Heroin! performed by the original cast." In 2008, Yo La Tengo followed up on the joke by releasing Fuckbook
, an album of covers credited to the Condo Fucks.
The album's sound is a blend of various genres, such as folk
("One PM Again"), rock
("Moby Octopad"), shoegazing
("Deeper Into Movies"), noise pop
("Sugarcube"), long noise jams
("Spec Bebop"), ambient
("Green Arrow"), and bossa nova
("Center of Gravity"), with a few songs showing electronic music
influences ("Autumn Sweater"), which would be more deeply explored on the band's following album, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
. The track "Stockholm Syndrome," sung by bassist James McNew
, has been described by Robert Christgau
as a "simulated Neil Young
ballad."
The album, like many others by Yo La Tengo, contains two cover songs: "Little Honda
," a Beach Boys
tune by Brian Wilson
and Mike Love
, and "My Little Corner of the World
," written by Bob Hilliard
and Lee Pockriss
and made famous by musician and anti-gay activist Anita Bryant
. The latter song lent its name to the soundtrack of the television
show Gilmore Girls
, entitled Our Little Corner of the World: Music from Gilmore Girls
, where it was featured alongside music by John Lennon
, Black Box Recorder
, PJ Harvey
, and others.
I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is among the most critically acclaimed albums by Yo La Tengo
, placing 5th in the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1997. The album has continued to earn acclaim since its release, ranking at #25 on the list of the Top 100 albums of the 1990s by Pitchfork
, and #78 on Spin' s greatest 90 albums of the 1990s. Robert Christgau
, in his review for Spin, called the first nine songs "perfect" and called out the song "Autumn Sweater" as the "very peak" of the album. He referred to the album as one of his "favorite albums of the year, easy," alongside those by Pavement
, Sleater-Kinney
, and Arto Lindsay
, and his review of the band's 2003 album Summer Sun
praised I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One as Yo La Tengo's "career album."
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo, sometimes abbreviated as YLT, is an American alternative rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan , Georgia Hubley , and James McNew .Despite achieving limited mainstream success, Yo La Tengo has been called "the quintessential...
. It was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
and mixed in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The album was released on Matador
Matador Records
Matador Records is an independent record label, with a roster of indie rock artists and bands.-History:Matador was started by Chris Lombardi in 1989 in his New York City apartment. The following year, Lombardi was joined by former Homestead Records manager Gerard Cosloy, and the two of them have...
in 1997, and "Busy with My Thoughts" appeared on the Japanese version, the song also available as the b-side to the "Sugarcube" single.
An insert parodied the marketing leaflets that are sometimes inserted into the jewel case for a compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
, promoting other products from the same label. It "advertised" albums by imaginary artists, like "Condo Fucks", "Unsanitary Napkins", "Künstler" in a variety of genres - riot grrrl
Riot grrrl
Riot grrrl was an underground feminist punk movement based in Washington, DC, Olympia, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and the greater Pacific Northwest which existed in the early to mid-1990s, and it is often associated with third-wave feminism...
, college rock
College rock
College rock is a term that was used in the United States to describe 1980s alternative rock before the term "alternative" came into common usage. The term's use of the word "college" refers to campus radio stations located at institutions of higher education in Canada and the United States, where...
, smooth jazz
Smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of music that grew out of jazz fusion and is influenced by R&B, funk, rock, and pop music styles ....
, stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
and Broadway musicals with "the soundtrack from Heroin! performed by the original cast." In 2008, Yo La Tengo followed up on the joke by releasing Fuckbook
Fuckbook
Fuckbook is an album released by indie rock band Yo La Tengo under the alias Condo Fucks in 2009. The band name comes from an inner sleeve listing fake albums and genre send-ups included in their 1997 album I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. Guitarist Ira Kaplan and drummer Georgia Hubley are...
, an album of covers credited to the Condo Fucks.
The album's sound is a blend of various genres, such as folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
("One PM Again"), rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
("Moby Octopad"), shoegazing
Shoegazing
Shoegazing is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. It lasted there until the mid 1990s, with a critical zenith reached in 1990 and 1991...
("Deeper Into Movies"), noise pop
Noise pop
Noise pop is a subgenre of alternative rock developed in the mid 1980s in the UK and US, that mixes atonal noise or feedback, or both, with the melodic instrumentation and production elements more often found in pop music, making it more melodic and angst-free than noise rock.-History:Noise pop has...
("Sugarcube"), long noise jams
Jam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
("Spec Bebop"), ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
("Green Arrow"), and bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
("Center of Gravity"), with a few songs showing electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
influences ("Autumn Sweater"), which would be more deeply explored on the band's following album, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out is the ninth studio album by Yo La Tengo, an alternative rock music group from Hoboken, New Jersey. The album was released in February 2000 by Matador Records...
. The track "Stockholm Syndrome," sung by bassist James McNew
James McNew
James McNew has been the bass player for the rock band Yo La Tengo since their 1992 album May I Sing With Me.He was previously a member of Christmas on their third album Vortex.[]He also has a solo side project, Dump....
, has been described by Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
as a "simulated Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
ballad."
The album, like many others by Yo La Tengo, contains two cover songs: "Little Honda
Little Honda
"Little Honda" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love for the American rock band The Beach Boys. It was released on their 1964 album All Summer Long, and it was also featured on their EP, Four by The Beach Boys. It was covered by The Hondells, whose recording peaked at #9 on the U.S. pop...
," a Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
tune by Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
and Mike Love
Mike Love
Michael Edward "Mike" Love is an American singer/songwriter and musician with The Beach Boys. He was a founding member of the band along with his cousins Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson, and their friend Al Jardine, and continues to perform with the band to the present day...
, and "My Little Corner of the World
My Little Corner of the World
"My Little Corner of the World" is a 1960 love song with music written by Lee Pockriss and lyrics by Bob Hilliard. It was first recorded by singer Anita Bryant in 1960, as "In My Little Corner of the World", and released on the album Hear Anita Bryant in Your Home Tonight!...
," written by Bob Hilliard
Bob Hilliard
Bob Hilliard was an American lyricist. He wrote the words for the songs; "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning", "Any Day Now", "Dear Hearts and Gentle People", "Our Day Will Come", "My Little Corner of the World", and "Seven Little Girls ".-Career:Born in New York City, New York, and after...
and Lee Pockriss
Lee Pockriss
Lee Julian Pockriss was an American songwriter who wrote many well-known popular songs and several scores for films and Broadway shows.-Early life and career:...
and made famous by musician and anti-gay activist Anita Bryant
Anita Bryant
Anita Jane Bryant is an American singer, former Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and gay rights opponent. She scored four Top 40 hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Paper Roses", which reached #5...
. The latter song lent its name to the soundtrack of the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
show Gilmore Girls
Gilmore Girls
Gilmore Girls is an American family comedy-drama series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. On October 5, 2000, the series debuted on The WB and was cancelled in its seventh season, ending on May 15, 2007 on The CW...
, entitled Our Little Corner of the World: Music from Gilmore Girls
Our Little Corner of the World: Music from Gilmore Girls
Our Little Corner of the World: Music from Gilmore Girls is a 2002 soundtrack release from Rhino Records for The WB's Gilmore Girls. The album is a combination of selections from the score composed by Sam Phillips and the music of other musicians heard, mostly, during the first two seasons of the...
, where it was featured alongside music by John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, Black Box Recorder
Black Box Recorder (band)
Black Box Recorder were an English indie rock group. They debuted in 1998 with England Made Me and followed this up with The Facts of Life, which gave them their first hit with the single of the same name in April 2000. Their third album, Passionoia, was released in 2003...
, PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey
Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician, singer-songwriter, composer and occasional artist. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments including piano, organ, bass, saxophone, and most recently, the autoharp.Harvey began her career in...
, and others.
I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is among the most critically acclaimed albums by Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo, sometimes abbreviated as YLT, is an American alternative rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan , Georgia Hubley , and James McNew .Despite achieving limited mainstream success, Yo La Tengo has been called "the quintessential...
, placing 5th in the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1997. The album has continued to earn acclaim since its release, ranking at #25 on the list of the Top 100 albums of the 1990s by Pitchfork
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
, and #78 on Spin
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
, in his review for Spin, called the first nine songs "perfect" and called out the song "Autumn Sweater" as the "very peak" of the album. He referred to the album as one of his "favorite albums of the year, easy," alongside those by Pavement
Pavement (band)
Pavement is an American alternative rock band that formed in Stockton, California in 1989. In their career, they achieved a significant cult following, and they were called the best band of the 1990s by prominent music critics Robert Christgau and Stephen Thomas Erlewine...
, Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney was an alternative rock band from Portland, Oregon that formed in 1994. Originally formed in Olympia, Washington, the group's name is derived from Sleater-Kinney Road, Interstate 5 off ramp #108 in Lacey, Washington, the location of one of their early practice spaces. They were a...
, and Arto Lindsay
Arto Lindsay
Arthur Morgan Lindsay is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He is a 1974 graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida....
, and his review of the band's 2003 album Summer Sun
Summer Sun
Summer Sun is the tenth full-length album by Hoboken-based indie rock band Yo La Tengo, released on April 8, 2003. It is their 5th album released on Matador.Despite the title of the album, the cover shows the band wearing winter coats...
praised I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One as Yo La Tengo's "career album."
Track listing
All songs written by Yo La Tengo, except where noted.- "Return to Hot Chicken" – 1:38
- "Moby Octopad" – 5:48
- "Sugarcube" – 3:21
- "Damage" – 4:39
- "Deeper into Movies" – 5:23
- "Shadows" – 2:27
- "Stockholm Syndrome" – 2:51
- "Autumn Sweater" – 5:18
- "Little HondaLittle Honda"Little Honda" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love for the American rock band The Beach Boys. It was released on their 1964 album All Summer Long, and it was also featured on their EP, Four by The Beach Boys. It was covered by The Hondells, whose recording peaked at #9 on the U.S. pop...
" – 3:07 (Brian WilsonBrian WilsonBrian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
, Mike LoveMike LoveMichael Edward "Mike" Love is an American singer/songwriter and musician with The Beach Boys. He was a founding member of the band along with his cousins Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson, and their friend Al Jardine, and continues to perform with the band to the present day...
) - "Green Arrow" – 5:43
- "One PM Again" – 2:25
- "The Lie and How We Told It" – 3:19
- "Center of Gravity" – 2:42
- "Spec Bebop" – 10:40
- "We're an American Band" – 6:25
- "My Little Corner of the World" (Bob HilliardBob HilliardBob Hilliard was an American lyricist. He wrote the words for the songs; "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning", "Any Day Now", "Dear Hearts and Gentle People", "Our Day Will Come", "My Little Corner of the World", and "Seven Little Girls ".-Career:Born in New York City, New York, and after...
, Lee PockrissLee PockrissLee Julian Pockriss was an American songwriter who wrote many well-known popular songs and several scores for films and Broadway shows.-Early life and career:...
) – 2:24