16 September 2013 (Day 269) – What’s My Favourite Sonic Youth Album Ever

I seem to have hit upon a comfortable run at the moment where I’m able to play 4 or 5 albums a day.  This ideally suits my campaign in writing about the candidates for my own personal top 100 albums of all time (that I’ve heard of course).   To date I’ve gone through a number of different categories – acknowledged classics, live albums, Australian albums, stuff that I like that others don’t necessarily and now I’m onto another category.  This is acts that have produced a number of top notch albums that I’ve always had difficulty in separating.   It also help me correct some of my listening patterns in my year to date, as I catch up on some of my favourite acts.

This leads me to today’s act, the .youth of my adopted name, Sonic Youth.  I first became aware of the band when I bought a vinyl copy of the Sister album, having been alerted to it by a Rolling Stone review.  It was probably the first of the major noise and feedback drenched albums to make an impact and was instrumental in my finally developing an appreciation for the first Jesus And Mary Chain album Psychocandy as well as putting me in the frame to better appreciate the Velvet Underground.  I next went backwards, hearing EVOL and Bad Moon Rising but found I appreciated Sister better, hearing in tracks like Hotwire My Heart, (I Got a) Catholic Block and White Kross the first true signs of conventional song structures and even some melody that were to emerge in their next proper album, the landmark double album;

(# 629) Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation (1988)

Lauded by absolutely everyone, this album packs quite a wallop.  It opens with a sensational trio of tracks; the ferocious Teenage Rocket gives way to the aural blitzkrieg that is Silver Rocket.  The Sprawl that follows provides a respite of sorts before the assault continues with awesome tracks such as Cross The Breeze, Eric’s Trip, Hey Joni and Kissability.  If the album has a fault it is that it goes on for a tad too long;  Trilogy, which closes the album cannot sustain interest for its length and simply peters out ending the album on a puzzling note and a couple of other tracks could have been cut. Had that been done, this would my vote as their best album and probably by a wide margin.  The band also toured Australia for the first time behind this album and the show I saw at the Old Greek Theatre on 20 January 1990, culminating in a thunderous version of The Stooges I Wanna Be Your Dog, was magnificent.  And, as if to complete the circle, the last time I saw them was on their final Australian Tour of February 2008, when they played this album in sequence warts and all with its power undiminished.

(# 630) Sonic Youth – Goo (1990)
(#631) Sonic Youth – Sister (1992)

These are the two albums I’ve have the greatest difficulty in separating.  Arguably the two most popular albums in their catalogue, between them they contain some of their most enduring music.   Goo contains the raging Dirty Boots, Kim Gordon’s ode to Karen Carpenter Tunic, Kool Thing a lesson that thought provoking lyrics and a near commercial tune can exist hand in hand, the screamingly propulsive instrumental Mildred Pierce, My Friend Goo and the convincing closer Titanium Expose.  The sound is rough but in a manner that suits the material brilliantly.

Sister, on the other hand, could very well be described as Goo with a cleaner production sound.  The opening four tracks are brutal and probably could have done with the dirtier Goo sound; still, very few albums start as convincingly as the combination of 100%, Swimsuit Issue, Theresa’s Sound-World and Drunken Butterfly attests.  Sugar Kane is the hit single equal of Dirty Boots, Youth Against Fascism nearly succeeded as well and the closing duo of Purr and Crème Burlee is absolutely inspired. 

Realistically, I could pick either in my top 100 but would feel uneasy about leaving out the other.  But then, if I did that, I would be forced to include;

(# 632) Sonic Youth – Murray Street (2002)

 Sonic Youth recorded quite bit after Dirty including experimental releases (the SYR series), strong albums such as A Thousand Leaves and Washing Machines and what is arguably their worst album, 2000’s NYC Ghosts & Flowers.  Perhaps sensing they needed a rethink, they added Jim O’Rourke and produced this absolute gem.  On it they found the absolute perfect match of melody and noise, personified by The Empty Page and Rain On Tin.  Both of these tracks see the band finding an initial smooth grove that they ride until arriving at moments of utter guitar chaos before slinking effortlessly back into the same groove as if nothing had happened.  Epic tracks in the guise of the 11 minute Karen Revisited and the enigmatic 9 minute closer Sympathy For The Strawberry are not that far behind.  The subsequent album Sonic Nurse provided more of the same wonderful sounds.