Yo La Tengo - big day coming 7inch (1993, Matador)

I discovered Yo La Tengo in 1993, with their album "Painful" which is still my favorite in their discography.

"Big day coming" is a 7inch from this album, it features on the a-side, the noisier and more straightforward rock version of the track, sung by Ira Kaplan, and totally in terms with the spirit of this era when alternative rock became popular thanks to MTV and Nirvana.

I'm not a big fan of this version and I really prefer the shivering one which opens "Painful", slower, with organ layers, delicate melancholic guitars and whispered intimate vocals, and longer (7 minutes vs 4).  

So the a-side is really not the attraction here, it's the b-side which makes his 7inch important. It features a quieter, more emotional, subtle and moving live version of "Double Dare" (with Ira singing on this one too), Yo La Tengo at their sleepiest, two minutes longer than the "Painful" version and better than the original.

A precious gem, where the lyrics become even more meaningful and delicate and bring back old, still vivid, memories, of these times. I know, no other band can replace Yo La Tengo for just this particular emotion they bring back to life in my mind everytime I return to this part of their discography and this alternate version of this song, makes this even truer. 

"Sometimes it's the way we feel, or the way we feel pretty bad"

"I'll walk you home, you take as long as it takes, the sun in the morning sky, we'll know where we are"

(another version from 2009 below, with Georgia Hubley at the vocals this time)