It's official: Yo La Tengo suck at titling their albums, but they sure know how to make them. The New Jersey indie-rock trio's latest is easily its best of the past decade or so — the kind of guitar-crazed masterpiece the band used to bang out every couple of years back in the Nineties. They begin and end the album with high-energy psychedelic guitar trances that break the ten-minute barrier without dragging for a second. Ira Kaplan retains his king-of-feedback crown in the epic groove monster "The Story of Yo La Tango," which makes up for the lame joke of the misspelled title with glorious squiggles of sound. Yo La Tengo try lush piano-and-violin ballads ("I Feel Like Going Home"), jangly rockers ("The Race Is On Again") — even a strangely percussive beach-music interlude with a horn section ("Mr. Tough"). There's so much piano and wood block here, you'd suspect they've been studying Peanuts cartoon soundtracks. Twenty years after their debut, Yo La Tengo are in full command.

“More Than a Feeling”

Boston mastermind Tom Scholz was as surprised by anyone when he sent his unsolicited demo to record labels and got back a positive response. Scholz said, “I couldn’t believe it. Nobody knew who we were, so I wouldn’t even say we were struggling. It was groveling.” Part of the credit for the interest must go to the anthemic rock number "More Than a Feeling." Inspired by the Left Banke's 1966 hit "Walk Away Renee," Scholz worked on the song for five years in his basement studio before it was released on this album.