Listening to Goo in 2009
 

Will report back when it's over.

IMO the production on it has aged a great deal, but the songs are killer.

I can't write, damn meds. But I will try.

Goo is a lot like Dirty. I never noticed this because it came into my collection in 1995, after Dirty. I am one of the Dirty-era fans. I was born in '77, so I was too young to get on board the SY-mobile before that really. Though, of coourse there are probably fans who were a lot more precocious than I was. My entrance to alternative rock came through Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But this isn't a personal history.

And yet there is no other way to describe an aesthetic experience than the personal way. Am I wrong? Maybe you could go historical. Or technical. OK, come to think of it there are a lot of ways to describe aesthetic experiences.

But this post is about Goo. Goo came out in 1990. It is now 2009. ZEROpumpkins says the production hasn't aged well. Isn't there a story there? What is old about it? I am not doubting you ZEROpumpkins, just pushing for a more detailed explanation. Is it just the way it sounds, and that's all there is to say? maybe.

It's hard for me to talk about Goo!

I was going to do a tracklisting with comments but decided that would cut up the experience of the album too much.

I came of age under the spell of Lou Reed's advisory re New York (his album of that name) that it should be listened to like a book. Am I fucked? Has Lou Reed fucked me up?

Goo is a good "book", a book I would wear around my neck or keep under my tunic if I wore a tunic.

I know that Goo and Dirty are usually classified as being similiar. But, for some reason, I rarely associate them with one another. I've always favored Goo. Dirty feels a lot more....erm, produced. I guess that's what happens when Butch Vig is in the mix. Don't get me wrong, Dirty is a wonderful album but I've always been more capitivated by the material on Goo.

Titanium Expose is really metallic. Heavy metal metallic. Moreso than Cross The Breeze.

On a side note, that video is pretty fucking kick ass.
Even though watching Kim and Thurston make out makes me feel a lil like a voyeur...

Musically Goo and Dirty are much like the same. Maybe Goo is little bit more loose than Dirty. But what comes to the production, that is where they differ. Goo is produced more like SY's 80's albums, yet Dirty has lot more production work in it.

I like Goo more than Dirty and maybe the reason is in how both records are produced. In Dirty there have been too many takes from each song in recording sessions, which have taken away the usual loose feeling of SY records. Also I think that Dirty's massive stadium sound is one thing that don't fit into music of Sonic Youth.

cagedbird:
I guess my main beef is the heavy reverb sound that was pretty typical on 80's/early 90's albums, sounds really washed out but polished at the same time. That said I don't blame the youth, being on a major label probably had something to do with it.

But music content? Damn!
Such a step forward for them in style. A bit more structured than DDN but still with the trademark feedback and sonic jams. Dirty Boots? Classic. Disappearer? Classic. Mote? You better fucking believe it's a classic.

Unfortunately it's let down by a couple of duds, particularly My Friend Goo. But I tend to ignore them, even my favourite youth album has a couple of misses IMO.

I've always considered Goo my least favourite, but recent relistenings have made it one of my least favourites, with Dirty and Washing Machine (but perhaps surprisingly, I really like Jet Set). It has three fantastic songs on it, Titanium Expose, Mote, and Tunic, among the best from each vocalist. Unfortunately, it also has two of my least favourite SY songs - Mary-Christ (frustratingly annoying, gets stuck in your head) and Cinderella's Big Score. The others range from okay (Disappearer, Mildred Pierce) to unmemorable (Dirty Boots). I really quite like the production on there, it's a shame they didn't have that many great songs.

Mildred Pierce is the forgettable of all forgettables.

i really like the vibe of the album - altho i hardly ever listen to it.
the production is shit as Zero said before. it sounds very fuzzy, but not in a good way.

"Goo" was Sonic Youth's eighth album, and their first for DGC/Geffen. The album was their major label debut, and with arena rock staples like "Kool Thing" and "Dirty Boots" deep in its grooves, it allowed Sonic Youth to enter the mainstream world, destroy everything in their path, and emerge victorious, riding the top 10 charts to sonic stardom and glory"

so happy they were...with this "kool thing".

goo rocks...always has and always will! end of story!

Call me a puss but this was my first remembered exposure to Sonic Youth. I heard Kool Thing on WBRU in Rhode Island in 1990 and that's what opened the door for me. Fond memories and I recall EXACTLY where I was at that moment. Going down Thames St. in Newport right by DryDock Seafood ! :D

In ways Goo and Dirty are pretty straight forward rockers for SY, but they're just as loved by me as their other albums. Of course I have the Deluxe editions of both and have listened to the extra's more than the origininal discs the past couple of years. They're indispensable to me. I'll just have to revisit both original albums this evening, thanks for the thread.

Yep.

Reactions to Goo these days seem mixed. Some really love it. Some pick out it's perceived failures. Others fault it's old-fashioned production.

As for me, I like it by virtue of its relation to Dirty. This relation is a revelation for someone who never saw it before.

Outside the super-fan commentary, Goo must seem a good representative album of Sonic Youth. It has the loose jams, the pop culture references and even the old-school hardcore throb of Mildred Pierce and others.

What can you say? I guess everyone has their personal reaons for loving it or finding it a clunker.

But I like the historical strand that runs through this thread. That's how I approach Goo, as a historical musical object. And lots of people commented on how it fits in the historical trajectory of Sonic Youth.

Maybe the amazement of seeing SY on a major has faded and we can see Goo as a bridge from the 80's to the 90's.

Goo rocks. mildred pierce is one of my all time faves. just noise and screaming. LOVE IT.

disappearer, MOTE, Mary Christ, fuck, I love so many songs on this album.

Didn't Steve say that someone ran this record through a "noise reduction machine?"

Goo is a very legit album. In 2009.

YEAH!!!!!