The awesomely titled They Shoot, We Score collects Yo La Tengo's film score work for four low-profile films-- a convenient way for fans to grab some unreleased tunes-- yet it doesn't lend itself to start-to-finish listens. After all, this CD compiles music composed for a range of flicks-- a drama centered around the 1986 World Series (Game 6), another about two old friends on a camping trip (Old Joy), a story about a big-city/small-town dysfunctional family (Junebug), and a ensemble piece about strangers in New York making connections through sexual exploration (Shortbus)-- and the music they wrote reflects the disparity between these films.
Though four films are represented, the majority of the disc is taken up with the work from Old Joy and Game 6. Junebug's presence is mostly comprised of a handful of minute-long interpretations of "Green Arrow", from I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One. "Ashley" features the song's melody on piano, while "Madeline" features a string section, "George" a vibraphone, and "Meerkats" a woozy violin accompanied by maraca. They're all gorgeous, but it gets a little repetitive, even in small doses, and these interstitial bits also get in the way of the few actual pieces of original music from the film, like the whimsical woodwind-abetted (and very un-Tengo-like) "A Roomful of Ladies". Shortbus, on the other hand, is represented by only four tracks, one of which (the Casio-nova'd "Wizard's Sleeve") is available on the official soundtrack for the film. That leaves two nearly indistinguishable versions of the pensive and warbling "Panic in Central Park", and "Isolation Tank", a fantastic and all-too-short somber bit of jazz.
The Game 6 section of the disc includes a truncated version of "Spec Bebop" (another I Can Hear The Heart... track), and most of the music takes its cues from that track's smoky atmosphere. Whether the music is more rocking (like with the would-be rave-up of "Game Time") or more pensive (as on the dramatically swelling "Buckner's Boner", a track title that probably brings a smile to Mets fan Ira Kaplan's face), there's a sense of the grime and heart of a city that permeates this work. It's a sharp contrast to the tracks from Old Joy, which are imbued with a rustic, panoramic laid-back vibe. Though the tracklisting certainly make logisitcal sense, for such a low-key release, I wish the group had shook things up and reworked They Shoot, We Score to make it more album-like/ After all, co-mingling folky tracks like "Getting Lost" and "Driving Home" with the city-slick Game 6 offerings and some of the other highlights from this album (even a few of those "Green Arrow" rewrites) would create a pretty faithful facsimile of a legitimate Yo La Tengo LP, which speaks volumes about the quality of the work here.
