I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is the eighth studio album by the American indie rock band Yo La Tengo, released on April 22, 1997, by Matador Records.
The album received widespread acclaim from music critics, who praised the band's ability to successfully expand the boundaries of nearly any pop style.
I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is the follow-up to Yo La Tengo's highly acclaimed 1995 album Electr-O-Pura, which was ranked at number 9 in The Village Voice's 1995 Pazz & Jop critics' poll.
[7] According to singer and guitarist Ira Kaplan, "I think after Electr-O-Pura we've had a direction of trying not to worry too hard about what the next album is going to sound like [...] we just write a bunch of songs, and then go one baby step at the time and just do what seems right.
[8] I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is the only Yo La Tengo album that was recorded on an ADAT magnetic tape format, even though it was mixed to analog later.
[11] I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One expands Electr-O-Pura's guitar-based pop to encompass a variety of other music genres,[1] ranging from the bossa nova soundscapes of "Center of Gravity" to the electronic grooves of "Autumn Sweater",[12] the krautrock jams of "Spec Bebop",[1] the "jazzy goof" of "Moby Octopad",[13] the trip hop sound of "Damage",[13] and the psychedelic folk instrumentation of "We're an American Band", among others.
"[15] The title to the song "Moby Octopad" is a reference to Yo La Tengo's appearance on the 1995 Lollapalooza tour, where the band performed mid-afternoon sets on the festival's side stage.
[17] The track "Stockholm Syndrome", which is the first Yo La Tengo song sung by McNew,[15] is about captives eventually expressing empathy toward their captors and vice versa.
[17] I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One also marks the debut of Kaplan's falsetto singing, which was said to blur the line between his voice and that of drummer Georgia Hubley.
[26] As of March 2000, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One has sold 73,000 copies in the U.S. according to Nielsen SoundScan, becoming Yo La Tengo's most commercially successful album at the time.
Writing for Entertainment Weekly, David Browne said that, while the band has always been "adept at striking a balance between hurricane-force dissonance and fragile serenity", Yo La Tengo "crack open their sound even wider here.
Their muted, after-hours guitar drone is in full effect [...] As adults who still need to make a racket, they remain addicted to noise, but now the trio integrates the feedback into the arrangements, like squalls rumbling in the distance.
"[30] Dele Fadele of NME also praised the open-ended nature of the album, but criticized the instrumental "Spec Bebop" for being "constructed around some hurtful feedback, to end up as an endurance test.
"[17] In a very positive review, Jason Josephes of Pitchfork praised the album for exploring new directions, commenting that the band takes its "sonic inventions to new levels.
"[32] I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One was ranked number 5 in The Village Voice's 1997 Pazz & Jop critics' poll, the band's highest position to date.
The subtly shifting moods and wide, curious palette of stylistic exploration resulted in a lasting indie rock classic, essential listening and also something of a blueprint for much of what followed from like-minded bands for years to come.