Sly and the Family Stone's 1971 album of the same name was a full-on record, reacting to extraordinary times. Yo La Tengo's 15th-odd offering is also a reaction to tense times, but a much calmer one.
Like virtually every other Yo La Tengo album, Riot is an effort to make the guitar band sound like the high point of human civilisation, rather than a vehicle for rebelliousness.
It is largely improvised, often meditative. Of the songs you can grab with two hands, the buzzing For You Too provides a sterling example of evolved masculinity in the wake of #MeToo, while Shades of Blue is as great a song as the Jesus and Mary Chain never wrote, and Polynesia #1, a lovely reverie that doubles as a paean to the South Seas.
- Kitty Empire/Guardian News and Media
