Summer Sun

Nineteen years and 11 albums haven't dulled or lessened the restless eclecticism of Hoboken's enduring avant-rockers Yo La Tengo. Summer Sun follows 2000's album And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out, and like that album, it is the sound of warm, slow-burning enchantment.

Yo La Tengo's feat is the way in which their wildly adventurous music sounds so understated and natural. Summer Sun embraces everything from brooding slo-core, kitsch bossa nova '60s pop through to rhythmic and folky electronica without ever sounding contrived or forced.

The gorgeous Today is the Day evokes the much-referenced Velvet Underground right down to Georgia Hubley's measured, somnambulant lilt. Don't Have To Be So Sad pares shuffling beats with tinkling keys, suggesting a fantasy collaboration between Four Tet and those other masters of downtempo--Low. Let's be Still is jazz-inflected pop and the closing Big Star cover Take Care is near perfect; an exquisite bittersweet parting shot to the end of a relationship.

In their 40s and after nearly 20 years together making music, Yo La Tengo shouldn't sound this good. That they do is no small reason to rejoice. Recommended!