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Strange But True | 
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| Artist: Jad Fair & Yo La Tengo
Label: Matador Records
Category: Music
List Price: $9.99
Buy New: $6.82
You Save: $3.17 (32%)
New (10) Used (8) Collectible (2) from $1.65
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 347861
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 744861030928
EAN: 0744861030928
ASIN: B00000AFUC
Release Date: October 20, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Helpful Monkeys Wallpapers Entire Home | | • | Texas Man Abducted by Aliens for Outer Space Joy Ride | | • | National Sports Association Hires Retired English Professor to ... | | • | Dedicated Thespian Has Teeth Pulled to Play Newborn Baby in Highschool | | • | Three-Year-Old Genius Graduates High School at Top of Her Class | | • | Embarrased Teen Accidentally Uses Valuable Rare Postage Stamp | | • | Principal Punishes Students With Bad Impressions and Tired Jokes | | • | Retired Grocer Constructs Tiny Mount Rushmore Entirely of Cheese | | • | X-Ray Reveals Doctor Left Wristwatch Inside Patient | | • | Clumsy Grandmother Serves Delicious Dessert by Mistake #2 | | • | Retired Woman Starts New Career in Monkey Fashions | | • | Circus Strongman Runs for Pta President | | • | High School Shop Class Constructs Bicycle Built for 26 | | • | Clumsy Grandmother Serves Delicious Dessert by Mistake #1 | | • | Ohio Town Saved from Killer Bees by Hungry Vampire Bats | | • | Nevada Man Invents Piano With 21 Extra Keys | | • | Clever Chemist Makes Chewing Gum from Soap | | • | Minnesota Man Claims Monkey Bowled Perfect Game | | • | Ingenious Scientist Invents Car of the Future | | • | Car Gears Stick in Reverse, Daring Driver Crosses Town Backwards | | • | Shocking Fashion Statement Terrorizes Town | | • | Feisty Millionaire Fills Potholes With Hundred-Dollar Bills |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Recorded over a two-day period, Strange but True doesn't sacrifice the talents of its individual collaborators. Jad Fair's nasally spoken musings, penned by his Half Japanese bandmate and brother, David, draw on supermarket tabloids for their themes and titles (e.g., "Minnesota Man Claims Monkey Bowled Perfect Game," one of two monkey-themed tracks) while Hoboken, New Jersey, legends Yo La Tengo construct sonic foundations that are alternately hazy, loose, or steeped in old-fashioned garage rock. Almost every track on Strange but True was recorded in one improvised take with the headphone-less band members unaware of what Fair was waxing over the vocal tracks. They probably all had a good laugh over the final product, and most listeners will, too. Strange but True is neither a novelty album nor a beatnik-poetry farce but two indie-rock icons having fun to positive results. When's the last time you heard something like that? --Jason Josephes
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great Find! September 21, 2006
Joseph A Kauzlarich (Seattle, WA United States)
As other reviewers have said, "Yo La Tengo fans beware!" Half-Japanese/Jad & David Fair fans will be delighted, however, to have their favorite odd-ball lyricist (I believe David Fair wrote most of the lyrics) and lo-fi songwriting master (perhaps outside of Daniel Johnston) backed-up by some of the premier instrumentalists of the 90's. This album is a gem-- Yo La Tengo's beautiful complexity and precision juxtaposed with Fair's from-the-guts-spontaneity, which has always sounded like a teenager recording songs on a bedroom boombox. It's a long way from Yo La Tengo's usual eerily-soft and clouded vocals and with Fair taking over we're forced to see both teams from a different perspective: Yo La Tengo comes out sounding more angular and grating, Jad Fair more introspective, but only by virtue of the new contrast-- all players remain themselves, as freely and creatively as ever.
But all my praises notwithstanding, the album remains a great experiment but hardly a masterpiece. Essential, maybe, to Jad Fair fans but probably a novelty to Yo La Tengo listeners who may not have the taste for beauty-in-ugliness aesthetic that appreciation for Half-Japanese has always required.
Fairly good August 6, 2004
J. Gustavson (Sthlm, Sweden)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I edit my old review, having revalued this Fair/YLT release. After repeated listenings I hold it to be actually a pretty good Fair record. One of the better of the era in which it was recorded (1994-96). I would also agree with those seeing this album as a mainly Jad Fair production, with YLT backing up Fair in his lo-fi esse, and as such it should be recommended to his fans. And, yes, one has to appreciate the kinda "weird" aestethics to see the greatness of this album. I would upgrade my stars to four if it was possible, but it isn't.
 yo la tengo fans beware. . . February 6, 2002
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
. . .jad fair's cutesy contrivances are so utterly unclever and outright annoying that they make this unlistenable. would the music stand alone as instrumentals (a la the infinitely superior 'genius + love')? i really can't say because i can't get past jad's pretensions (they're not even original; they were supposedly clipped from tabloid headlines). i saw this performed live and was so upset that i couldn't listen to any yo la tengo albums for weeks afterwards. however, if you're into jad, or think live introductions like "this is a song about a circus strongman who runs for pta president. it's called circus strongman runs for pta president'" are scintillating, then go for it.
 An exercise in weirdness, but little more than that June 4, 2001
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Yo La Tengo fans should beware; this album is not exactly what they might expect.I give this 2 stars for a certain curiosity factor and for the kinda wacky lyrics, but in terms of music and production, this is a far cry from other Yo La Tengo albums. "Weak" sounds like an understatement. Even though the music is credited to YLT, this is much more of a Jad Fair album. Their musical talents hardly shine through as the production is a devil-may-care kind of lo-fi, the songs rarely extend beyond 2 minutes and seem mere fragmented vehicles to transport Fair's jumbled vocals. A major disappointment.
Better Than Might Be Expected, But Fair Wears Thin November 24, 1999
Pop Kulcher (San Carlos, CA USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Pop Kulcher Review: While I'm a dedicated fan of Yo La Tengo (in my opinion, the most exciting band of the 1990's), I put off buying this 1998 side-project. The album features YLT backing the vocals of Jad (David) Fair, part of the art/punk band Half-Japanese, whose nasal, semi-spoken oddities I've always found amusing but somewhat irritating. But the album is much better than it should be. Rather than tossing off some half-baked background music, YLT actually compose some tight, concise little numbers, which fully realize their wide range of styles, from quiet acoustic folkiness to upbeat power guitar rock to full-on sonic chaos. And Fair's lyrics -- essentially a series of rhyming vignettes based on what appear to be National Enquirer headlines -- are at least amusing. His little-boy spoken-word approach is somewhere between indie-icon Daniel Johnston (another YLT collaborator, of sorts) and iconoclastic bands like Ween and They Might be Giants. Sure, I would have preferred to hear YLT's vocals on top of the music, but for a novelty side-project it's relatively fun, and further confirmation of YLT's status as one of the most consistently entertaining and innovative bands around. I'd even offer up the straightforward buzzsaw guitar rocker "Texas Man Abducted By Aliens For Outer Space Joy Ride" (in which Fair comes closest to actually singing) as an essential part of the YLT catalog. On the downside, Fair's vocals do annoy over the course of an entire album, so this is best enjoyed in small bites.
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