Mark Prindle - Rather Ripped Review
 

On his site:

http://www.markprindle.com/

Rather Ripped - Geffen 2006


Thee Temple Ov Psonick Youth is back with what I personally consider to be their finest bag of melodies since Washink Machine. Sure, they never change their sound, and certainly haven't done so here. But the appeal of these later Sonic Youth records that they keep releasing every few months is that, although they almost never deviate from the clean guitar tones they picked up a decade ago, and although you'll hear plenty of chord changes that you could've sworn you heard on Daydream Nation and every record since, the band is still capable of coming up with absolutely gorgeous music when it puts its mind to it. And this time, it's paid off in spades (black people)! If you've read this entire shitty page, you know what a Complain Wart I can be about this band, yet I wouldn't hesitate to sign a sealed court document accusing me of absolutely LOVING 7 of these 12 songs. They're uptempo, catchy, warm, memorable and audioically interesting. Let me explain in a bit more detail, in a new paragraph to be named later.

First of all, the songs are shorter and more succinct than they've been in ages, with a full seven of the tracks ending before the 4-minute mark. Secondly, nearly every song is uptempo. Thirdly, Kim's singing is not only tuneful but often downright beautiful, probably her finest work in the band's history (aside from those fatally missed high notes in "Jams Run Free"). Fourthly, in addition to a downright catchy collection of chord changes and arpeggios spread thoughout the disc, the band has crafted a number of fascinating new sounds for you, including ringing 'harmonics chords' in "Do You Believe In Rapture?," gorgeous Unrest-esque bass/guitar/guitar interplay in "Jams Run Free," hilariously sick funk bass and amp noise in "Rats," an unexpectedly low bottom note in "Lights Out," Minus The Bear-style intertwining guitar arpeggios in "The Neutral," and thick bassy heartbeat percussion thumping in "Or." So appreciate that. Most old people who pretend to be young (Neil Young, Angus Young, Henny Youngman) are either uninterested in or incapable of actual sound experimentabilism once they reach a certain age. But not old Sonic Young! You can count on me!

Sure, a few of the riffs are dangerously SY-by-retread ("Incinerate" in particular has hardly any reason to exist), but most are not. Buy it! Seriously! Buy it for the energetic tempos, hooky melodies and lovely, creative instrumental interplay ideas. And just try to ignore the fact that Thurston Moore, who sings 6 of the songs, is incapable of writing a vocal melody.

Isn't this neat? I seriously didn't think I'd ever be excited by a Sonic Youth album again! It's almost enough to make me go back and listen to the last few again to see if I'd like them more now. I probably won't do that, but what a thought, huh?

In closing, here's a joke, to start the review off with a bang:

What do you get when you cross Thurston Moore with a baboon's ass?
A baboon that farts the exact same notes it's playing on the guitar!

Oh! Also, Jim O'Rourke's not in the band anymore, so don't be all listening for his crazy noises.

Same for Jim Sclavunos, unfortunately. He will be missed.

If you listen real close though, you can hear Bob Bert and Ernie Kovacs guest s

Wait a second! Did you see that? I just said "Bert and Ernie"! Ha ha! I didn't even mean to do that! That's great! Ha ha!
You know what song is really great? Eddie Floyd's "Big Bird." It starts with this awesome g

HAY! Did you see that? I TOTALLY wrote "Big Bird" without even meaning to! What's crazy going on here? Maybe I've been snorting too much snuff, Leupa Gus!

Yes, Leupa Gus is a good friend of mine I like to do a shout-out to every once in a

WAIT A SECOND! DID YOU SEE THAT???? I TOTALLY JUST URINATED OUT OF MY BELLY BUTTON!!!

i think a lot of people mistake maintaining a characteristic sound while attempting new things with sounding the same. people like big changes instead of subtle ones while keeping a personality.

mark prindle is such a close minded idiot, yet his reviews are so entertaining and funny.

great!

i second every-e. i love the guy, but he's not the most open-minded.

Yeah, I hate Prindle, but I can't dissagree with him here.

Well, it is funny, but I cannot say that I hate Prindle cause I don't know him....

Thanks for the link, TheDom.

to the T can't write a melody remark
Did he really listen to it? From what I can hear in the stream, this album has more intentional melodies than just about any Sonic Youth album I can think of really. That's refined lyric writing.

I also feel (as is the case with most albums) that some songs are markedly better than others. With a Sonic Youth record though one usually grows to love the songs that they originally felt to be weaker. With Rather Ripped, the weaker ones are slightly weaker than usual & I can't forsee them growing on me too much in the future, but time will tell as it always does, I suppose.

Nixing "the Neutral" or "Lights Out" & inserting "Helen Lundeberg" instead would have made it finer.

"Lights Out" could have passed for a closer as well, but "Or" indeed is better.

Maybe even "Lights Out" & "Or" could have been pieced together & made into just one song.

To his credit he gives the album an 8. He gave Murray Street & the great Sonic Nurse both a 7 though.
I can certainly empathize with his tendency to wallow in free association & self-absorption. Sometimes that approach leads the author to writing that has universal resonance; that's not the case here, however. His observations about the individual songs are pretty good though & that's always the meat of any early album review like this for me.

Fair enough. I don't hate the guy; I just don't agree with the guy, and I believe that most of the time that his jokes are shit.

He's funny sometimes, very closeminded, but at least he has an opinion. Just dont take it as absolute and enjoy. I mean how seriously can you take a guy that says the things he does about miles davis. Just read his reviews for him, what a dumbass.

He doesn't seem to know much about music, regarding his reviews of miles D.
And since when is 'uptempo' a quality in music, that's complete nonesense...
Slow music can be cool too...