KHSU Music Director Mark Shikuma’s occasional column about new records.

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Fade, Yo La Tengo (Matador Records)

“I can’t imagine being a band that just makes a record, tours, makes a record, tours, makes a record,” commented Yo La Tengo’s vocalist/ drummer Georgia Hubley, in a recent Pitchfork interview. “That would drive me crazy.” Fortunately, the Hobokon, N.J.-based trio has kept their career, one that spans nearly three decades, as eclectic as their recordings, ranging from scoring film and television soundtracks to hosting a unique annual Hanukah music series in their hometown club of Maxwell’s. For Yo La Tengo’s thirteenth full-length album, Fade, they’ve once again offered a moveable feast of pop-based gems, and, with the recording and mixing assistance of Tortoise/ The Sea and Cake’s John McEntire, it maintains a cohesive overall sound.

The only similarity that Fade bears to its predecessor, 2009’s PopularSongs, is that the album frames the two most “dynamic” compositions and sandwiches, or bookends, its interior of crafted songs from widely diverse styles and approaches. Nothing new, perhaps, to the YLT fan, who is familiar with the band’s talent and ability. But with Fade, the band has cut out the occasional excess – stretches of “free” play and feedback. Instead, they work from a minimal foundation and build up from there.

The opening cut, “Ohm,” sets the tone for Fade in myriad ways. The repeating, ringing guitar riff chimes its mantra, so to speak, employing YLT’s variation of krautrock. “Sometimes the bad guys go right on top. Sometimes the good guys lose,” the guitarist Ira Kaplan quietly sings. “We try not to lose our hearts, not to lose our minds.” In nearly every song there’s a cryptic line or two that contributes to a larger metaphor, one indicated in its title.

In “Paddle Forward” – the upbeat, minimal garage song about surfing — co-vocalists Kaplan and Hubley caution, “The riptide’s pulling us away from shore … the water’s warm.” An effervescent organ leads the deceptive bubblegum pop of “Well You Better,” with its ominous chorus, “You better make up your mind, before it’s too late.” An angular, Television-like (or Sea and Cake-like) guitar line threads through a chunking rhythm, propelled by drummer-vocalist Hubley and bassist James McNew in “Stupid Things.” It’s unclear whether the narrator is addressing a child or the listener: “Every stupid thing that happens to you, every stupid thing I say…it happens everyday,” Kaplan croons. “I say, ‘Whoa,’ you always wake before you fall. I always know when we wake up your mind…you’ll wake up your mind.” Is it observation or a plea?

Placed in the heart of Fade, the melancholic and sincere “I’ll Be Around” stands out as one the record’s highlights. John Fahey-esque acoustic guitar lines float over McNew’s bobbing bass line, light percussion and a lone drone of an accordion/harmonium. Kaplan’s vocals capture a sad beauty that similarly exist in Brazilian bossa nova of the late 1950s/early 1960s.

Fade concludes with Yo La Tengo’s most powerful and intricate song to date. “Before We Run” kicks in immediately from a small guitar drone, a sharp snare drum pattern and Hubley’s delicate vocal, revolving in circular patterns, later to be joined by horns and strings in a counter-circular arrangement. The effect is mesmerizing, while the composition rises in a epic, majestic crescendo.

“I don’t think of our records as being that different,” observed Kaplan in the aforementioned Pitchfork interview. “Overwhelmingly, they’re all created the same way.” However, as in “Ohm,” Kaplan voices, “Nothing ever stays the same,” and it’s to the listener’s benefit that one is able to hear the band’s artistic growth, maturity and craft culminate triumphantly (and ironically) with Fade.

Suggested cuts: “Ohm,” “Stupid Things,” “I’ll Be Around,” and “Before We Run”