YLT has for so long been proffering great music, and at such a consistent rate, that even for older fans like us it can feel difficult to wrap ones mind around their enormous and esteemed catalog.

But a significant part of the fun of the band derives from the pleasure of falling arbitrarily into a sprawling and compelling story and working your way backwards and forwards through a tangled but brilliant discography that reveals unexpected pleasures at nearly every turn.

To borrow a phrase, it feels like they were always the caretaker here.

Their initial full-length, Ride The Tiger, was released in 1986, alongside The Smiths The Queen Is Dead, R.E.M.s Life Rich Pageant, and the Beastie Boys Licensed To Ill.

They predated Pavement by three years and are still going strong following Pavements breakup and subsequent reunion tour.

Crucially, this freewheeling approach never feels like dilettantism: YLTs explorations into genre are always integrated into a coherent aesthetic that has evolved from countless years of hard study, collaboration, and touring.

There is simply no way to fake your way into this circumstance.

However the hiring of James McNew as permanent bassist in 1992 was a critical development.

While the band has continued to employ esteemed contributors and collaborators, the addition of McNew to the husband-and-wife lineup of Ira Kaplan on guitar and Georgia Hubley on drums consecrated that rare formulation of musicians whose strengths, impulses, and desires fit perfectly together.

With McNew on bass, frequently playing melodic lines in a high register, Ira Kaplans guitar id seemed unleashed, his playing veering between the elegantly lyrical and the utterly unhinged, frequently in the same song.

Hubleys diverse and creative timekeeping became even more so, and the band kept taking more chances.

Perhaps most propitiously, each member could sing, and increasingly they would sing together.

Kaplan and Hubley had long made hay out of their harmonies her beautiful and plainspoken alto meshing wonderfully with his surprisingly versatile Lou Reed-like croon.

The addition of McNews lovely highlonesome vocals made for endless possibilities that, in the accustomed fashion of the group, were excitedly explored.

The result has been a string of brilliant records that simultaneously credit and utterly rethink the music history they adore.

YLT is remarkably prolific, and over the course of their career have released countless EPs, side projects, and soundtrack work, almost all of which is absolutely excellent.

For the purposes of this article, weve stuck to ranking the 12 main studio LPs, but there is plenty more to discover.

Starting here is our highly subjective attempt at putting this terrific catalog into an order; cries of foul over our exclusion of the Condo Fucks go to the comments.

Painful Yo La Tengo Zip