cool down and listen to it a couple of times before you judge it. i'm listening to it for the second time now and i'm pretty blissed out. they seem to enjoy their new found freedom, quite a tour de force. didn't thurston mention the wipers in a recent interview? fits for me, it's a very "band"-feel. and you can feel mark's impression on all the tracks, it's like a new rhythm section, even the drums sound tighter. i won't need to buy any records this year;)

Agreed. Though Steve's always been great. He just sounds energized.

But I think the songwriting is much weaker than on Rather Ripped. But then Sacred Trickster, Anti-Orgasm, Malibu, and Massage the History are great songs. I guess the duds are getting flatter for me with this album. I actually skip over them, which I pretty much never do on any other Sonic Youth album. And I've been once since 1988...

well I've had about 3 total listens and i can understand the criticism of 'it's too much like what they've done before' because it all is stuff they've done before. I don't think it's a bad thing because it feels like they just wanted to relax and make a album in their comfort zone and a retrospective of the past 28 years.

Some songs (Antenna, calming the snake, gas station spring to mind) proboly are too derivative of older work the rest are better done 'throwbacks'. Personally i like the 'throwback' feeling it's comfortable but yet new... i don't have to throw on DDN or GOO for the 1 millionth time to get that same feeling out of SY. Also note i think a band is always free to rip themselves off any time the want to.

Again fans that always want 'newness' out of the band are going to be disapointed. personally i think they've been around long enough to just go and make a great album without the pressure of 'reinvention'.

And i think this is their best album since DDN... hands down.

Also i think this album was made with live shows in mind. Anyone that's been to a SY concert recently knows how much more energy the band and the fans seem to have for their older songs than their newer ones. I think they picked up on this and decided to bring that old energy back into new work.

that being said i am assuming their next album will sound completely different and i will be disappointed if it's 'more of the same'. There is such a thing as staying comfortable for too long.

One last thing none of the songs have caused a really violent negative reaction in me... something i can't say has been true since Goo (in fact the majority of jet set and leaves ended up in the strongly hate pile from day one... I actually resold ATL the day after i got it because i hated it so much and still only like Sunday and Hoarfrost from it)

"Antenna" kinda reminds me of a song on Court Of The Crimson King but I don't remember which one.

This album is glorious--it sounds like Sonic Youth to me and that's pretty much what I expect from them. While I like some albums better than others, they have never really let me down (although it took me many many moons to appreciate EJST&NS). The first two spins of "The Eternal" left me blissed out--I was grinning the entire time. I'm definately not disappointed.

I hear bits and pieces of past tunes echoing throughout the new tracks, but it all seems funneled through a new invigoration. I'm not going to make any comparisons because people are going to take away or get something different.

I think these tunes are going to rock live and I haven't been this excited to hear SY perform new tunes in quite some time.

Oh yeah, this is going to be the ultimate Summer record.

What duds?

And Rather Ripped had songwriting?

Sleepin' Around
All over town
Making an album
a big let down

oh snap

Is it just me or is the lead part on Massaging The History very reminiscent of Dave Gilmour circa Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii?

The only good thing about the song Sleepin' Around is that it sets up What a Waste well.

Here's a shitty song about being a slut followed by a good song about being hard to get.

:confused:

That's a great set of songs. WTF?

BTW Pink Steam = Awesome intro and build-up, and then once you get to the vocals it just blows. Loving lover? Sounds like he was pulling pages out of my lyrics that I wrote when I was 16.

I'm happy.

Overall Thurston has never been that good of a lyricist...

:(

I wouldn't say he's bad, but every once-in-awhile he'll throw some real bombs out there. I actually don't think loving lover is that bad, I just think it's funny that I wrote a song when I was 16 with the same phrase in it.

The worst example I can think of Thurston's lyric writing would have to be Chapel Hill.

Just listened. This is a HUGE improvement over Rather Ripped and Nurse. Really surprised. As a lot of other people have mentioned, they do sound energized. I need to listen some more but this sounds like a classic SY album to me. The harmonics in Leaky Lifeboat!

Antenna reminds me " Suede" That's strange

What duds are there on this album? My answer: none. I love every song. That doesn't happen often for me with SY albums. Usually there's one I could do without.

My track by track review:

Sacred Trickster- Kim rocking the fuck out. Perfect execution.

Anti-Orgasm - Thurston rocking the fuck out. . . wait no. . . Thurston and Kim singing back and forth and both rocking out in punk rock fashion. Wait. . . now we've got a very spacey ending. Nothing standard about this one, what you think is a simple song keeps unfolding and getting more complicated.

Leaky Lifeboat (for Gregory Corso)- A lot of new textures to be had here, lots of little layers under things very WM or ATL like. There are little chord parts and melodies and sounds that are alien to SY recordings interspersed through the song that don't immediately pop out. The speed and the tightness of this song is striking. The harmonic intro and then the little lead part during the verses fit together hand in hand.

Antenna- Excellent drumming, excellent singing by thurston. Also there's a little meanness to the guitar- some of the arpeggiating in the instrumental, and then that chord change right before the vocals kick in. Those two things put Antenna over the top for me.

What We Know- Kim's vocals add a lot here, it's nice having Lee and Kim sharing duties. The little riff at the end of each verse is awesome too. Fuzzed out and garagey. That little part from 1:45-1:55 between the second chorus and before the usual SY type noise jam is really nice.

Calming the Snake- Kim rocking the fuck out again. I love when the verse guitar part comes in and everything comes out. The second guitar playing that mean line every other bar in the left channel is freaking awesome as well. Not to mention the nice "oh oh oh oh ohhhhhs" from Kim

Poison Arrow- Yeah Thurston does sound like Lou Reed here, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Another strong song from him vocally. More backup from Kim on here, which works wonderfully yet again.

Malibu Gas Station- A clean guitar venture by Sonic Youth in ATL or DDN type. And they're masters at writing songs like this. The slowly strummed warbly chords in the left channel make this song- it gives it sort of an upbeat surfy feel. After the instrumental there's a bridge that recalls the Leaky Life boat motif. A nice touch. Usually this sort of song by them is a lot slower and loser, but Malibu Gas Station is very tight (sort of a trend of The Eternal- a bit quicker and tighter than usual.) Then the noise jam at the end instead of going on forever ends very quickly to go back into the chorus once more at the end. It makes for a nice transition, and you don't expect it. You expect them to rock out the noise for a minute or two, but no.

Thunderclap for Bobby Pyn- So this is dedicated to Darby Crash, and the music shows it. It's got this cool punk rock vibe . The brief acapella moments seem oddly appropriate, as do the Woah woahs and yeah yeahs. One of my favorite touches is by Steve. On the third verse he does this little rolling cymbal or bell thing, that's cool.

No Way- initially I thought this was going to suck from the early live recordings. But I like the album version. A bit simpler than Thunderclap, but still a good song.

Walkin Blue- A great Lee song. Nice noise texture at the beginning. I haven't heard that one. The parts with the doubled vocals remind me of something, but I can't put my finger on it. Some of the lead parts of very Kraut-rocky to me.

Massaging the History- best song on the album. Beautiful acoustic guitar along with a haunting tremolo picked echoey lead with Kim's soft vocals that she's made good use of over the last few albums. Not to mention that nice part with the modulated reverb on her vocals. This song turns me on. It's so sexy. If I had an attractive girl in the room while listening to it for the first time I'd probably end up on the couch or in the bed with her, not of either of our will's but of the songs.

My bad. I blended you two together.

But The Eternal is better than Goo and Nurse. Also there's elements of ATL, DDN, Washing Machine, and Murray Street in there. Plus totally unique elements.

The Eternal sounds like Sonic Youth. It sounds like The Eternal.

Wow, where did this album come from? I'm shocked, actually. I like nurse, and rather ripped was ok, but I definitely didnt get as strong of a reaction when I first heard them.