Who are the “quintessential critics’ band”? Surely it must be some post-modern, quasi-jazz, sub-punk quintet that no normal person has ever heard of. A band whose lyrical prowess makes Oscar Wilde look like your average trash-mag monkey, whose chord structures are so complex they’ve given birth to a whole new branch of mathematics…and whose output has all the appeal of a fish milkshake.

It most certainly is not Yo La Tengo. So whoever hung that particular noose around the Hoboken trio’s neck, can they please issue a retraction quick smart. Yo La Tengo aren’t about taking music into inaccessible places inhabited by a select few. They’re the people’s band. The band that has something for everyone. The band whose likeability is only enhanced by the fact they have the good grace to look more ordinary than you do.

Popular Songs (see a thousand critics recoil in horror at the – œP’ word), continues to showcase the band’s adoration for music’s multi-faceted form. Much like previous releases, particularly 2007’s I Am Not Afraid of You and I will Beat Your Ass, the album plays like Ira, Georgia and James gathered up generous handfuls of their favourite sounds and threw them in the air to see where they would land.

Their love of late – œ60s Motown translates into If It’s True. A chubby bass line walks hand in hand with bright, cheerful strings as Ira and Georgia make like an indie version of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Two paces back and Nothing to Hide sees the band revisit their rebellious youth courtesy of a three-chord pogo that has its pretty melody roughed up nicely by the Ramones’ knockabout grit.

Although these little pastiches are fun and witty reinterpretations of much loved sounds, Yo La Tengo are never in danger of sounding like a glorified covers band. Periodically Double or Triple is certainly anchored to Stax Records’ back catalogue, but it’s not the vintage organ that makes it so charming. It’s the eccentric – œmusak’ interlude that pops up out of nowhere, the sweet backing vocals and Ira Kaplan’s gripe with Proust’s lack of brevity and his own inability to master the use of a hammer.

Naturally Kaplan picks up most of the vocal duties here, but there are plenty of moments where his wife (Georgia Hubley) takes the reins. Hubley isn’t the world’s best singer, but she is blessed with the Little Voice That Could. It may be small, lacking in heft and limited in range, but my, does it have a huge heart. It’s quite lovely to hear her diaphanous tones take on the brawny hooks of Avalon or Someone Similar, or successfully imbue By Two’s frosty melancholy with the soft notes of wistful sorrow.

Yo La Tengo are certainly mindful of those who don’t always like their music to clock in under five-minutes. Popular Song’s final three account for nearly half the album’s running time, and are almost brazen in the way they take their time to get nowhere in particular. More Stars Than There are in Heaven is a gentle ten minute tumble of spiralling guitars that’s followed by The Fireside; a cavernous expanse where spaced-out sounds echo around dark chambers. In its midst an acoustic guitar turns out thoughtful refrains that could easily find their way to the soundtrack of an art-house road movie.

Popular Songs is completed by And the Glitter is Gone. Its swag-bag of assorted treats (ranging from the lead guitar’s sugary hit to a sour-bomb dollop of feedback) is a last act of defiance against anyone who believes Yo La Tengo make inaccessible, esoteric music. It’s just not true. Yo La Tengo make music for each and every one of us, so it’s about time the critics let them out from underneath the radar and found another band to call their own.

Popular Songs is out now through Remote Control.