Yo La Tengo: Painful LP

Originally released in 1993, Painful is the outstanding sixth album from Hoboken, New Jersey trio Yo La Tengo and their debut for Matador Records. Produced by  John McEntire (Tortoise, Stereolab, Bright Eyes), the 11-track effort marked a creative shift in Yo La Tengo's sound and finds the group melding their signature noise sonics with rich ambient musical textures, resulting in increasingly nuanced songs and beautiful dynamics.

Spin's Rob Sheffield called Painful, "the album that keeps every promise Yo La Tengo ever made, full of ravishing, wraithlink melodies around scruffy guitars that clang around your head like sneakers in the dryer...when a bunch of weird sounds add up to a masterpiece as casually majestic as Painful, well, ‘genius' isn't even the word, is it?"