Summer Sun was recorded in Nashville, United States. The album was mixed at Shelter Island in New York.
Content
's mother, Faith Hubley, died right before the band started working on the album. The Hubley family piano went into Yo La Tengo's practice space in Jersey City, and became the center piece for the sound of the album. On the album's style, The A.V. Club reviewer Keith Phipps notes that "Summer Sun finds Yo La Tengo in a twilight mood, interspersing instrumentals and one elongated jam between atmospheric, quietly ingratiating pop songs."
Album cover
The album is a double exposure shot taken in a New Jerseyparking lot. Despite the title of the album, the cover shows the band wearing Winter coats. When asked about this odd juxtaposition, guitarist Ira Kaplan said: "We really need to get together with the Matador art department about that. We submitted eight rolls of film containing one shot after another of us in bathing suits. At the end of the session, the photographer requested one shot of us in our winter coats, "for his personal collection" we were assured. Imagine our dismay when the album came out."
Reception
Summer Sun has received a favorable reception from critics, though with several reviewers seeing it as a natural come-down from the heights of their previous records. It currently holds an approval rating of 77 out of 100 on review aggregator website Metacritic. Mojo called the album "A set of busy beautiful whispers; 62 minutes of exquisite suspended animation" Alternative Press called it Yo La Tengo's "most challenging album to date". Uncut wrote, "From the edge of the sea, back to the fringes of sleep, Summer Sun is uncommonly lovely". Greg Milner of Spin wrote: "Summer Sun sometimes sounds like a band treading water at low tide, but obsessively exploring the contours of a moment is what Yo La have been about from day one." AllMusic's Heather Phares called it "an album that's as settled and smooth as the previous one was inventive and eclectic. But, even though Yo La Tengo can still run circles around other groups even when they're running in place, compared to their best work Summer Sun is merely pleasant." PopMatters Adrien Begrand wrote" "As good as Summer Sun is, and it's very good, it just doesn't quite have the timeless, magical quality that ...And Then Nothing had." Eric Carr of Pitchfork opined that the album "marks Yo La Tengo's first album since their 1986 debut, Ride the Tiger, to lack invention altogether." Andrew Unterberger of Stylus Magazine echoed similar sentiments, writing "Summer Sun, while constantly very good, is never creative, inspiring or great. And sorry, guys, we've just come to expect better of you. It's more of a compliment than anything else, honestly." Even more negative was Michael Chamy of The Austin Chronicle, writing "Most of Summer Sun is underwhelming to downright cringe-inducing." As of 2006, sales in the United States have exceeded 70,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
