Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

Boys did on their kaleidoscopic '60s masterpiece, Pet Sounds, Yo La Tengo aren't afraid to expand their sonic horizons. On their last LP, 1995's Electr-o-Pura, guitarist Ira Kaplan, drummer Georgia Hubley and bassist James McNew did just that, artfully exploring the schism between minimalist pop and ambient maximalism.

Heart continues Electr-o-Pura's slow dive into abstraction, incorporating electronic grooves into such songs as "Moby Octopad" and "Autumn Sweater." But throughout, Yo La Tengo maintain a tension between aural deconstruction and sharp songwriting. The album has its share of perfect pop songs: "Sugarcube" is an ethereal, romantic gem, while "Shadows," an austere, velveteen ballad driven by Hubley's alluring whisper, could have been a standard in another era.

If anything, Heart proves that Yo La Tengo can master nearly any pop style, from the bossa-nova swoon of "Center of Gravity" to the pedal steel guitar twang of "One PM Again," which evokes a scratchy country radio station heard on a late-night drive. The greatest stylistic pileup occurs on "Spec Bebop," where a Kraftwerk synth drone does battle with insistent "Sister Ray" cacophony; the music's ominousness is undercut by Yo La Tengo's infectious joy at simply making noise. It's just this joy that makes Yo La Tengo stand out amid their indie-rock peers: On Heart they may aspire to be the greatest indierock, noise-collage, electronica collective ever, but they're also just being themselves. (RS 759)

MATT DIEHL