Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth deserve every compliment that's been thrown at them for making this album. Youthful empowerment, suburban malaise, punk rock noise, beatnik bliss and artful overindulgence are just a few of the areas touched on in this unbearably tuneful and explosive release. Gerard Richter's painting for the cover is the icing on the cake.

A single album never seemed to offer a broad enough canvas for an inclusive view of the
Sonic Youth experience. Last year's splendid album Sister, on SST, came close, with its
tight song structures and controlled bursts of sonic mayhem. But the definitive Sonic Youth
vinyl was still the live double-album bootleg issued several years ago in England -- until the
arrival of Daydream Nation, the band's first official double album and its first reco... More >

At a historical juncture we can only hope isn't a fissure, a time when no sentient rock and roller could mistake extremism in the defense of liberty for a vice, the anarchic doomshows of Our Antiheroes' static youth look moderately prophetic and sound better than they used to. But they don't sound anywhere near as good as the happy-go-lucky careerism and four-on-the-floor maturity Our Heroes are indulging now. Whatever exactly their lyrics are saying--not that I can't make them out, just that catch-phrases like "You've got it" and "Just say yes" and "It's total trash" and "You're so soft you make me hard" are all I need to know--their discordant never-let-up is a philosophical triumph. They're not peering into the fissure, they're barreling down the turnpike like the fissure ain't there. And maybe they're right--they were the first time. (Grade - A)