“There’s a Riot Goin’ On” is an album title as applicable today, as it was when it was first used by Sly and the Family Stone in 1971. The modern world is a torn and divisive place — the Syrian Civil War continues to complicate foreign policy, ethnic cleansing marches on in Myanmar and international espionage wracks the governments of the world’s superpowers. There is a common sense of uncertainty and uneasiness across the world’s nations, as if the normal lives we live are teetering on the edge of an incredible fall. Every day a new tragedy arises. Every day a part of our lives we once thought concrete and understandable dissolves beneath our feet.
This is the climate that the latest album from Yo La Tengo finds itself within, playing to an audience of haggard and disillusioned protesters. Though for all the connotations of explosive aggression its name might invoke, “There’s a Riot Going On” is more meditative reflection than it is protest music.
Sonically, the album heavily leans on the ambient genre as a source of inspiration. In songs like “Above the Sound,” soft drums pitter and patter as delicate chimes dance through the air, never staying in focus for longer than a short glimpse at a time. Pairing these arrangements with a steady, low-riding bass line, the track seems to pull the listener upward until its own low-key melody lies at their feet, insulating them from the world beneath. The mood is completed by bassist-vocalist James McNew’s soft-spoken yet firm vocals, appearing fleetingly yet with immediate presence among the subdued instrumentation.
Other songs like “Ashes” work with elements of meditative ambience but in a slightly more direct manner. Here, sliding guitar chords swing along the instrumental, streaking in across the listener’s face before panning off into the distance once more. Accompanying these strikes of sound is a plodding synth beat and delicate bass line — never venturing too far into the foreground, yet remaining omnipresent as it chugs along to the movement of the song. Guitarist-singer Ira Kaplan rounds out the track with crooning vocals delivered in soft balance, remarking that “ashes blow away,” as the instrumentation continues to drift along. The song gives the listener an immediate feeling of calm, matching the push and pull of their own breaths to the streaking motion of its guitar chords.
Meditation music is truly the best way to describe the feelings evoked from “There’s a Riot Goin’ On.” Long, subtle drones and vast stretches of low key instrumentation allow the listener plenty of room to simply slip away from the world around them, as they float along in thought, subtly directed by the speech of McNew and Kaplan. “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” certainly doesn’t mirror the aggressive and vengeful approach that many of Yo La Tengo’s indie-rock contemporaries have taken in response to the movements and tragedies of the world today. But it is certainly welcome, if only as a place for weary souls to rest.
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