Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

Daydream Nation (1988) *****

I hate this band and even I have to admit that this is a masterpiece, one of the essential classic rock double LPs (I'm not the only one nostalgic for the days when that meant something; somehow an hour-plus length CD doesn't carry the same magic, the epic sense of potential sweep and sprawl that the term "double album" conjures).  But epic sprawl is not the reason this album is so cherished; the adjective 'eclectic' does not apply to Sonic Youth, it's that rarity - a classic rock double album in which all the songs are performed in the same style, SY wisely deciding not to take advantage of extra breathing room to attempt any wacky offbeat genre experiments (OK, there is the spoken word piece, "Providence," which is indeed as rotten as is much-maligned reputation - we shall speak of this song no more forever).  Oh, it's not as if it "all sounds the same," the songs are all built on individually memorable riffs; the songs just stick to the patented Sonic Youth style.  The sound is still noisy, but the noise is much more honed and polished than on previous indie label outings; on their final record for SST, Sonic Youth actually recorded an album with an actual recording budget - they allegedly spent more money producing this album than all their previous albums combined, and it shows.  Perhaps that's why it's the Sonic Youth album that's held up as their crowning achievement: it's cleaned up just enough for accessibility, with actual riffs, rhythms, and melodies emerging from out of the noise, but they have yet to lose their indie-rock fire and edge.

They are conventional enough to open the album with the two strongest songs, the Lou Reed-ish pulsator "Teenage Riot", and the punchy riff-fest "Silver Rocket."  "You've got it / Burnin' hand in your pocket / Ride, ride the silver rocket!" - where did these guys get the reputation for being smart?  I know, I know, it's self-consciously post-ironic post-modernist Gen X intentional D-U-M-B-ness, "Total Trash", as they sing over recycled '70s cock rock riffage, but that still doesn't mean that you don't sound stupid.  You don't listen to Sonic Youth for Kim Gordon's sullen pouting in "Kissability," you listen for the moment when, right after she shouts, "Give us a kiss!" the guitars screech WHEEDLY-WHEE!  "Eric's Trip," and "Rain King," are sort of throwaways, I guess, but the sliding melody and translucent guitars of "Candle" are just lovely, and the closing "Trilogy" (it's just three separate songs randomly stitched together, they don't fit together for any compelling reason) hangs together fine, even if "Eliminator Jr." sounds like ZZ Top (de-uhr, just look at the title).  Sonic Youth are a difficult band to love and an easy target to hate, but a classic is a goshdarn classic. 

Sonic Youth - Sister

Sister (1987) ****

What wonders gaining a real drummer will do for a band.  Or maybe it's just that they're finally learning how to  write real songs - the opener, "Schizophrenia," sounds anything but like the title, it's pleasing, mid-tempo pop!  The clangy, detuned guitar fuzz can't cover up the sweetly melodic center.  Not that they're necessarily all that talented at writing pop/rock songs - "Catholic Block,"'s chorus is kind of stupid, with a dumbed-down cock rock riff to match.  But it's not bad or anything, just kinda dumb.  For such allegedly sophisticated boho poseurs, the Sonics-not-so-Youthy (Kim was already pushing 40 at this point) sure do sound painfully dimwitted at times.  Any time Kim Gordon opens her mouth, for example - as usual, the songs she sings are the lowest of the low points, and it doesn't help that "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder," is slow.  SY's trick bags of guitar effects weren't versatile or interesting enough at this point in their development for them to successfully cover up the fact that they did not, never had, and never will have the first clue how to write a good slow song, one that isn't an amateurishly gloomy basement dirge.  Well, it's not as if you're looking at a Sonic Youth record for the songwriting, are you?  Truth told, the generic indie rock melodies are kinda generica, and the ferocious rockers - anybody can write a ferocious rocker, it's how you perform a rocker that matters.  Which is why the likes of "Catholic Block," succeed in spite of themselves; the guitar riffs may not shake the earth, but they're gauzed up in such interesting noises.  The detuned guitar effects aren't extraneous embellishments to the songs; the noises are inextricable from the riffs and melodies, they are the songs, they are the groove.  Neat noise tricks are the sole reason for Sonic Youth's existence, but this album shows that those noises are so much more effectively deployed when wrapped around a few actual songs.  And to think that for a time I thought that the '77 punk rock obscurity, "Hot Wire My Heart," was the best song - it's not, it's just the most obvious.  And since obvious usually equals D-U-M-B when we're talking Sonic Youth, I should theoretically change my mind and announce it the worst song?  Nah, it's not, it's pretty rockin'.  But still pretty dumb.

Sonic Youth - Confusion is Sex

Sonic Youth 

Confusion is Sex (1983):  I've always hated this band.  OK, so Daydream Nation had its moments, but none of the other half dozen albums I've heard by them do anything but irritate me.  Their debut long player is no exception.  Even the track listing pisses me off – the songs aren't listed in correct order on the back cover, making me have to do that much extra work to figure out which title matches which song (which isn't that hard to do, actually, most of these songs have an identifiable chorus phrase).  There's a cover of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" that sounds like it's emanating from inside a garbage can with a scraping violin trying to claw the lid open, which is actually pretty awful but since "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is the greatest song of all time (this is objective fact; look it up), it's impossible to destroy.  That's the high point.  The low point is "Lee is Free" – that's the name of their drummer – that sounds like a two-year old banging around in the kitchen.  No, I'm not exaggerating, that's what the closing track literally consists of.  I wonder if they put the royalties for that toddler into a trust for college?

See, that's one difference between SY and the Fall, a similar sounding band that was a big influence (google "Psycho Mafia" and "Rowche Rumble" on youtube; Sonic Youth's cover versions aren't very good but at least respectable stabs.  Truly bizarre/awful is the Youth's version of the Kinks' "Victoria", kid you I not).  The Fall are above all a ferociously rhythm-driven band, with more killer bass lines in their career than any other band this side of James Jamerson.  Sonic Youth might as well not even have a rhythm section at all.  I can't remember a single memorable bass line Kim Gordon has ever plunked – she stereotypes "let me find my no-talent girlfriend a place to take up some token space in the band, guys, the bass is easy cuz it only has four strings".  And that's another difference – Mark E. Smith is a great vocalist (note I didn't say 'singer', I wouldn't go that far).  He may sound like a cranky old drunk ranting at the barstool, but that's his charm.  Nobody in Sonic Youth is a remotely compelling vocalist.  Kim always sings in a bored, sullen monotone and so does Thurston Moore only less distinctively so.  So what you're left with is a pile of distorted, clanging guitars creating a moody din, which sometimes can be interesting if attached to compellingly formed songs, otherwise Sonic Youth can come across as punk rock's answer to New Age (especially on their post-menopausal '90s and '00s records).  This one was recorded when the Youth in their Sonic wasn't entirely meant ironically, so it's got some actual energy to it.  But the songs are mostly uninteresting and uncompelling, so it's a boring, cling clangy drag. **

P.S.  I was just kidding about "Lee is Free".  Not about it sucking, though.