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.

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…