They deal with complex emotions

Yo La Tengo “Fade” (Matador Records)

It’s possible at this point to consider Yo La Tengo as a musical version of Michael Apted’s long-running “The Up Series,” documentaries that since 1964 have followed the same 14 children as they’ve grown and changed. Started in Hoboken, N.J., by guitarist husband Ira Kaplan and drummer wife Georgia Hubley, Yo La Tengo has been documenting lives through music for a quarter of a century now, creating solid, virtually unimpeachable rock ’n’ roll that offers a model for dual creativity.

On the 13th Yo La Tengo album, the couple works through complicated emotions with as much elegance and grace as ever.

At its best — the delicate “Cornelia and Jane” and the rhythmic, orchestral closer “Before We Run” — “Fade” offers reassurance that the band and the couple at its center are as solid and creatively stable as ever. The family that plays together does indeed stay together.

— Randall Roberts

Christopher Owens “Lysandre” Fat Possum

“New York City,” the third song on Christopher Owens’ debut solo album “Lysandre,” is kind of an opposite-universe version of Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side.”

It’s a sax-soaked tale of turning tricks in the big city, but zips along a major-key melody with a mix of hope and devastation.

That blend has been the hallmark of Owens’ writing since his time fronting the indie-rock band Girls. “Lysandre” isn’t much of a departure.

“Lysandre” starts with a Ren-Faire flute melody that suggests a joust with preciousness is to come.

But then the record skips off into Bill Withers acoustic ambience, Belle & Sebastian-style twee-pop and occasional nods to acid-casualty classic rock.

“Lysandre” is a fresh start for a writer with a fine ear for the way happiness and heartbreak intertwine.

— August Brown