SONIC YOUTH “The Eternal”
I have a personal, mental joke about Sonic Youth album reviews. They all must follow the following formula: “Sonic Youth used to be innovative, but with this record they have begun to repeat themselves.” I think this accusation has been thrown at them since “Goo,” uh, something like 18 years and 9 albums ago. Then the next record comes out and the reviews say the same thing. Heck, someone’s probably been saying that since “Sister.”
Precisely on cue, I ran across some newspaper review of this album which said (almost word for word) “for the first time in their long career, Sonic Youth offer up nothing new.” Either these reviews are written by people who have heard of Sonic Youth and then are surprised that the music is rather pleasing and the songs are mostly standard rock songs – or – hindsight allows people to see that actually Sonic Youth have always been tinkering with their formula.
So I shall now offer my very different review. Here is what’s new about Sonic Youth’s music. These changes have been brewing for a few albums, but here’s what’s happened. About a decade back, they brought in a 5th member, Jim O’Rourke, to play keyboards. That actually resulted in one of my least favorite albums, “NYC Ghosts and Flowers” which I find kind of rambling and directionless. But after some messing around with this line-up, O’Rourke switched to bass guitar.
This brought in a significant new element. First of all, with Kim Gordon on guitar, the guitar-work could be even a bit denser and more intertwined. More importantly, O’Rourke’s straight-up musicianship added a stronger melodic element to Sonic Youth songs. They now have a new bassist (Mark Ibold, previously of Pavement) but he continues very much in the same style. Note the bass playing in the middle and end of “Anti-Orgasm” on this album, which uses these fast little (I think those are called) scales - comletely unlike anything Kim would play. The bass is also played clean, so these additions are subtle, almost subconscious, especially with those trademark guitars up front.
Another change is that Sonic Youth have officially moved beyond their song-noise-song pattern. Instead of a song that goes along for a while, then turns into a storm of noise, then returns to the song (or you can change up the order), the noise and music is now fully integrated. Guitar noises work in service of the songs.
This formula was mostly in place with “Sonic Nurse,” a couple of albums ago. It got stripped down a bit with the lighter-sounding “Rather Ripped,” and now some more grungey chunkiness has been mixed back in and we get “The Eternal.” Everything you’d want from a classic Sonic Youth album is here in this new, refined form. Some unsettling moods, rock’n'roll moves, teenage poetry, some breezy and genuinely pretty tunes, a couple of great Lee songs, a few good guitar squalls. A solid, satisfying album. Different too. Subtly, but different. Like always.
CD and LP on Matador Records.
Hey, I know you. You either used to write for Flipside oooor you hung out on the Skin Graft board. Am I right?
Anyway – while I haven’t heard the new record I’ve found their stuff to be fairly dull for a while. I thought ‘Washing Machine’ and ‘1000 Leaves’ were great when compared to ‘Dirty’, and I’ve come around on ‘EJS, T&NS’, the rest of their 90’s / 00’s work as Sonic Youth has left me bored. In fact, I found ‘Murray Street’, ‘Sonic Nurse’ and ‘Rather Ripped’ interchangeable. Not to mention 70’s soft rock damaged (yes – soft rock DAMAGED). I found Lee Ranaldo jamming with the SNL band more pulse pounding (seriously, the juxtaposition of the avant garde against the hi-commercial was crazy)!
Of course, you’ve gotta cut them slack as they’re the ones who brought the vast majority of us to the dance, but as ‘innovators’ well, that ship sailed the day they hired Butch Vig to transform them into a cynical grunge act.
I find it funny that you say they’ve integrated the noise into their songs as opposed to compartmentalizing it (which they certainly have done for ages) as, really, that would be a ‘return to form’, that being akin to their early work, up to ‘Evol’.
Somehow, I’m not sure the Bread song structures of the latter day Youts will hold up against the Branca era, but maybe I’m wrong?
You’re a kind man, Mr. Lockwood. That’s gotta count for something…
1MarsHottentot:
A well-reasoned rebuttal. Thank you for commenting and filling out the other side of the picture.
I don’t disagree with what you say here. I wouldn’t call the recent albums “innovative” – just different than what has come before. Soft rock – fair enough, plenty of that in there. Maybe it even sounds like Bread (never heard them) – when compared to “Confusion is Sex” at least.
You’re probably right that the Branca-era will be more fondly remembered in the history books. But probably “Dirty” too – best sellers and “breakthroughs” (popularity-wise) tend to be held up by history. Note which albums have gotten the deluxe re-release treatment.
I have a more detailed theory about opinions on Sonic Youth. Everyone believes that Sonic Youth stopped being really good shortly after the current release at the time that person became a fan. And I forgot to mention the inverse of the formulaic negative review, the formulaic positive review: “Sonic Youth have been putting out mainstream/sellout albums for a long time, but this one is a return to form, not seen since [fill in that album which made you a fan here].” Next album, same review appears.
Am I guilty of being too kind? True, I only do “positive reviews” here. Really, all I do is rant about stuff I think is great, and occasionally some thoughts on new music from one of these notable pioneers, for example the Boredoms or Teenage Jesus. Still, if I say that I like something, it’s only because I like it. If I think something’s really lame, I won’t waste the time to write about it.
Never wrote for Flipside – must have been the Skin Graft board.
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