Each Friday I pick a song–new, old, borrowed, blue–that’s been on my mind and in my ears, and write a short post about it.

This is “Ohm” by Yo La Tengo:

I listened to Yo La Tengo’s 2013 album Fade for the first time in a while this week, and more or less immediately realized I hadn’t listened to it nearly enough. I remember liking it quite a lot when I first got it (it came out at the beginning of last year) and thinking, yep, it sounds like a pretty good Yo La Tengo album.  But actually I was wrong: it is an excellent Yo La Tengo album. It does all the things Yo La Tengo has been doing since before you were born, and it balances them in a way that sounds at once invulnerable as a fortress and delicate as thinly-blown glass.

“Ohm” is the opening track of Fade. This video explains the complicated mathematics and surreal dream you need to master to create Yo La Tengo. It’s like a Schoolhouse Rock episode about rock. Because knowledge is power. I got it!