Painful

Yo La Tengo

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 23, 1997)
• Original Release Date: October 5, 1993
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Matador Records
• ASIN: B00000581R
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #75,584 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

The long-running Hoboken, New Jersey, trio's favorite devices are neatly evidenced on this 1993 disc: barbed guitar freakouts by Ira Kaplan, breathily exquisite Georgia Hubley vocals ("Nowhere Near"), an obscure but excellent cover choice (the Only Ones' "The Whole Of The Law"), and a love for sonic texture that's backed up by first-rate songwriting. Subtle at its loudest and vital at its most subdued, Painful is built around a series of hovering, dreamy bass and organ drones matched by the singers' purr, but propelled by Hubley's insistent rhythms and Kaplan's prickly guitar leads. --Douglas Wolk

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The greatest band in the universe", May 23, 2005

By	L. E. Johansen "eRiK joHanSeN" (Avon, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My Buddy Peter teases me about my obsession with this band. It's Okay, it's a healthy obsession and this was the album that started it for me! Although not as accessible as there '97 release I Can hear The Heart beating As One it cetainly has the power to pull you in and not let you go......nor do you want it to let you go.

It was 1995 or 96 and Yo La (as my buddy calls them) was on a Matador Records tour headlining for Pavement and Silkworm, two of my favorite bands at the time. That day I asked around "Who is this Yo La Tengo?" I didn't find out much so the next day I went out and bought Painful. I had the day off and decided to get high and run a few errands. It was a beautiful day in Atlanta so I popped in my new CD, rolled the windows down, opened the sunroof and took the backroads everywhere I went that day. From the dreamy organ of the opening track Big Day Coming to the distorted epic seven minute long emotional crescendo of the final track I Heard You Looking I knew I had discovered something unique, something imaginative, something perfectly balanced. I knew that day it was the beginning of a life long love affair. Like a drug, it was something I had been looking for all my (musically obsessed) life yet constantly kept coming up short. Painful floats and soares to exalting heights in and out of dreamy melodies. Stylistically placed organ interludes, rolling drums, Bass lines and Softly spoken guitars build up emotinal energy as Georgia Hubley's oohs and aahs hang in the distance. Am I dreaming or am I really this satisfied by this music?

I have to laugh at myself and include this quote I came across while reading a review on Pitchfork of Yo La's 1997 release I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One "Yo La Tengo is still the greatest band in the universe! Enough said".
-Jason Josephes, May, 1997

Pitchfork gave that album a rating of 9.7 out of 10!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Organ and Fuzz Combine to Make for Shimmering Beauty, September 4, 2003

By	Gabriel V. Delsaz "snarfquack" (Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This album has some absolutely gorgeous melodies and is stylistically almost shoegazer, with its reliance on feedback and ethereal walls of sound. While somewhat inconsistent it has a good number of beautiful songs that take me back to my early college days when i was discovering excellent new bands all the time. Two standout songs are Nowhere Near and Sudden Organ. Nowhere Near can be listened to as a sample and perfectly captures the fuzzy, dreamy, distortion-laden beauty of the album. Highly recommended. If you listen to this and like it you should also check out Boo Radley's "Everythings Alright Forever".

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still their best, March 4, 2000

By A Customer

Boy, do I like this CD. For me, this is still the best record YLT have ever made.

It was back in 1993, and they were setting out the path between ethereal, soft sound and hardcore noise drones and somehow they got it right. Witness the two versions of "Big Day Coming" - they point you all the way from their earlier efforts to "And Then Nothing...".

Despite the fact that the musical mood varies more than on any of their other records, this is perhaps their most cohesive, most cleverly planned production. "From a Motel 6" and "Sudden Organ" are as timeless as "A Worrying Thing" and "I Was the Fool Beside You for Too Long". Every single song here is great. It's the one record that I wish wouldn't end.

Buy buy buy buy.