Includes download code.
Gatefold sleeve.

As Yo La Tengo reach their sixteenth album and twenty-fifth year, the end seems nigh. Not in the usual sense of fizzling out into indie-rock old age, though: they appear to be cramming so many ideas and styles into their recent albums as possible, seemingly in preparation for some kind of implosion. Gone is the uniform sedateness of previous albums And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out or the relaxed vibes of Summer Sun. Their recent work (not including this year's fuzzy covers record as the Condo Fucks) has been borderline schizophrenic. 

Popular Songs, like its predecessor I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass, could be mistaken for a mixtape were it not for Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley's trademark breathy vocals. As ever, Yo La Tengo's music nerd credentials are paraded about through the variety of loving homages. 'Periodically Double Or Triple' - the first mp3 released from the album - is possibly the first YLT song that could ever be labelled 'boogie', with its bluesy rhythm and 'Green Onions' organs. Elsewhere, 'If It's True' is a note-perfect Motown pastiche, and also the most adorable duet they have ever recorded.