Album · Yo La Tengo
Painful by Yo La Tengo
Painful is an album by Yo La Tengo, released in 1993. 2 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 7 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “From A Motel 6”, on 5 lists with a best position of #203.
Painful, Yo La Tengo's sixth album, came out on Matador on October 5, 1993, the Hoboken band's first for the label, with the trio in place since 1992: Ira Kaplan on guitar, keys and vocals, Georgia Hubley on drums, keyboards and vocals, and James McNew on bass and backing vocals.
It's a record of drift and hum, drones and patient feedback swirling around hushed, half-whispered vocals, and every so often Kaplan's guitar tears the fabric wide open. It sounds like a band that has found a home and decided to explore every room of it. Much later it got the deluxe treatment: on 2 December 2014 it returned as Extra Painful, padded out with bonus material on double CD, double vinyl and download.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Painful on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | From A Motel 6 | 5 | #203 | – | 2020–2026 | |
| 2 | Big Day Coming | 2 | #734 | – | 2021–2023 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.