Mortte, the situation you descfribe results from the fact that for years and years, the ONLY band making music that satisfied a specific noiserock mashup primal need was Sonic Youth, and when they stopped doing what they do so well, no one else will come and fill that void.

Like all singular musicians. When Dylan dies there will be no more Dylan. When he switched to electric guitar and rock music the folkies went nuts, some felt betrayed, sure, but most I am certain just felt that, "Oh fuck, now we have no one making the kind of intelligent, dense, folk music that Dylan mastered."

I can understand how people feel that way about bands like SY when they make albums full of sad, rainy day songs, or albums full of poppy, peppy 3 minute rockers...

it is all subjective bias of course, but that is all we have!

So what do you do? Stop listening to all other bands because Sonic Youth are the one and only?

Nope. I mourn the passing of the one band that makes the sounds that match exactly the random noise in my head all day every day, and go listen to sad Neil Young songs....

I kind of have actually. Not being sarcastic. I've found that pretty much after SY's 'breakup' that I've not really been interested in much new guitar music. I mean, I have some singer/songwriters I'll still pay attention to (Beck, Ryan Adams) and maybe a handful of bands that I've liked forever that I'll check out new albums (Smashing Pumpkins, um...) but for the most part I just don't seem to be interested in many BANDS anymore. Listen to more jazz, hip hop and even pop singers than bands proper. Hmm.

I have only spun the Eternal LP once.

swan song LP's get me morose....

I'm glad I've been cheating on Sonic Youth for so long before they started doing the same wih each other.

that's sort of fair enough. Though when Eternal came out we didn't know it was the end. Also, I tend to think of SYR9 as their last album. Huh.

I listened nowdays mostly 60-70 music, but also 90-2000 albums of my old favourite bands (like Bad Brains). But it´s always a happy suprise when someone release some new great album (like new FSA this year, it has given me much same satisfaction as SY still gives me).

I've actually been listening to A LOT of 90's and early 2000's stuff this year as well. I must be getting old.

I am old.

I'm the person who posted the original thread saying I didn't like a single song on DDN or Dirty.

When I get around to writing reviews for the SY albums I have heard so far, I'm going to post them so you all can see where I'm coming from (though many of you will obviously completely disagree; some people love raw onions, I can't stand them).

I'm going to start with Dirty. To be nice, I rounded up to 4 on a couple of these songs, so you could technically say I lied about not liking any of them.

I can eventually give a song-by-song review of Experimental, but to keep it long-but-not-way-too-long for now, I'll just say that my overall rating for it is 4.7. I will also admit that I give 2 of the songs a lowly 3 stars.

My system is 1-5:
5: top-notch
4: stands out as a great song
3: ok, possibly "good", but nothing to be really proud of
2: not-so-good but there's at least something good about it
1: nothing good about it
Total score is the average of the top 10.

Total score for Dirty: 2.8

1. 100% - 3
Starts out with a good punch but the chorus is too dull.

2. Swimsuit Issue - 1
Sounds like vomit.

3. Theresa's Sound-World - 3
Starts off really nice and builds to that amazing guitar thing. Needs to do something cool after that, but instead goes back to the beginning.

4. Drunken Butterfly - 2
Starts off okay, and that cool guitar part is fantastic. The "I love you" chorus sounds like constipation.

5. Shoot - 3
Starts off nice. Doesn't go anywhere.

6. Wish Fulfillment - 4
Starts off sleepily nice, like many of the previous songs. But finally gives us a great punch of a chorus.

7. Sugar Kane - 2
That guitar at the beginning is great--and that guitar after the beginning is great. The vocal parts are mediocre.

8. Orange Rolls - 2
Verse sounds like vomiting while constipated. The short, fast chorus has no punch. That one guitar thing is really cool, though.

9. Youth - 2
There's only one small part to this, which repeats a million times. The vocals are rather annoying, but I like the music throughout.

10. Nic Fit - 2
Not much to this, really not so bad for what it is. Good call on making it less than a minute. The lyrics are a bit lacking for my taste.

11. On the Strip - 2
Starts off okay but the chorus sucks.

12. Chapel Hill - 4
This starts off great. That music is where it's at. And the vocals are fine. Believe it or not, the chorus is fine, too.

13. JC - 2
It's okay, but it's the same thing over and over.

14. Purr - 3
I like the intro, and the scream. The song ain't bad. There's obviously punch in there, but it's not sung with enough emotion to really bring it out.

15. Creme - 1
Yawn. Boring, repetitive.

I disagree with a lot, but i like what you are doing. Keep going, i am interested to read your thoughts on these.

This review makes me want to kick something. Dirty is on my top5 and you shit on all the best songs on it

JC is a masterpiece fuck what you think

If it makes you feel any better, that's the way I feel when I hear most people put down albums I love, like Radiohead's Pablo Honey, REM's Monster, Elvis Costello's Punch the Clock, and Smashing Pumpkin's Adore.

Tell me "Prove Yourself" sucks and we'll be even. It blows me away. Starts off soft and beautiful, and then WHAM! with that guitar... prove yourself! And then Thom pours his guts into the next verse. And I love "Vegetable" even more.

Maybe "okay" wasn't the right word for JC. I love how JC starts and the first minute of singing, and all the music behind it. At that point, I think JC is on track to be 4 or 5 stars. But it's the same vocals throughout, it doesn't go anywhere else. In my view the song is incomplete, which results in a score of between 2 and 3 stars, slightly closer to 2 and rounded down.

I definitely agree with the fucking what I think part, though. I certainly wouldn't expect anyone to stop liking raw onions just because I explain why I hate them.

This compromise is better, i knew even you knew you were being too harsh on JC

You is the best song on pablo honey.

I don´t like your review at all. You are repeating yourself all the time, I don´t think you´re saying much of Dirty except you seem to hate it. Comments like "sounds like vomit" or "chorus sucks" sounds schoolboy reviews to me. I think repeating things is quite big part of SY-music (like it is also in krautrock) I think there is also quite much repeating in Experimental. When reading this review from Dirty, hard to understand what you think is great in Experimental. But of course you can keep on writing your reviews, I don´t have to read them.

strange for me to read that because I like walking to the rythm of cymbals hearing at this song on earphones. but perhaps I don't go anywhere too when I walk. in all case you didn't convince me that it is possible to not love DIRTY. possibly I can understand to think of the first songs (till SUGAR KANE) as some kind of introduction to the second part of the album but from "orange rolls" till the end of the album the piece is so consistent that I can't understand not loving it

I absolutely love rehearsal instrumental version of JC. It has so much energy and it is so raw sound-vise. wow.