reassessing goo
 

thank God this isn't a Fall messageboard, otherwise this whole reassessing thing would take years. As it is it should only take a couple of days, especially the way this insomnia thing is hitting me right now. I don't think I've listened to this much Sonic Youth in this short a space of time in, well, ever.

So anyway, Goo, an album that for the longest time I've been pretty down on. I'm one of those boring 'it all went wrong after DDN' types, which is why it's been sort of great for me to listen to the later stuff again with more of an open mind. So, as ever...

..here goes

1. Dirty Boots. A nice riff that's sort of loose and lazy but still has enough energy to move the old hips. The chorus though is just a little bit too eager to please, if you know what I mean. For some reason I can never listen to this without thinking of that awful video they did for it.

2. Tunic. I always think, given its theme, that this would've fitted in well on EVOL. Interesting how violent the music here actually is, especially compared with Kim's laid back vocal delivery. This is largely lost in an awful mix, even on the Spec. Edition remaster.

3. Mary-Christ. Straight ahead thrash-pop run through with some OK distorted backing vox and a nicely strangulated solo but ... well ... not that great really.

4. Kool Thing. I can imagine that this divides people. I quite like it. The vox are of course great but again, like Tunic, it's easy to forget just how savage the music is on this one. Again though, this is lost in the mix.

5. Mote. I'm not as big a fan of Lee's stuff as some people are on this board. I tend to find his songwriting a little awkward compared with his guitar playing. As such, I like the music here a lot but find the vox and structure a bit, well, shit really. Of course, the centrepiece of the track is the noise section at the end which is what Lee's always done best anyway.

6. My Friend Goo. Forget the irritating sing-along vox and listen to that bass. Kim really is one THE great bassists in rock and its a shame how she's increasingly sidelined this part of her role in the band.

7. Disappearer. There's no substitute for good songwriting and all the nice little guitar lines in the world won't save this from being just a pretty bad song. It's like 100 things going on at once, only about five of which are any good.

8. Mildred Pierce. More filthy bass from Kim and some great shouty vox from Thurston at the end. Short but rather sweet.

9. Cinderella's Big Score. Given the theme of this song it seems a bit hard to criticise it, but anyway. Apart from this truly amazing little throwaway guitar riff from Thurston that comes approx. three minutes in CBS is a bit of a mess. Another case of too many things happening at once, too few of which are actually any good. This really is one of the most poorly produced albums imaginable, and all the remastering in the world won't alter that fact.

10. Scooter and Jinx. Sounds like the end of Mote. Only less interesting.

11. Titanium Expose. Musically this sounds a lot like Kool Thing. Unfortunately it has this really weak guitar hook and the whole thing is just far too messy, which sort of sums up the album as a whole for me.

Remembering that this is the band that wrote songs like Brother James, Death Valley '69 (albeit with Lydia Lunch), Expressway to Yr Skull, Schizophrenia and Teenage Riot it seems incredible that they couldn't write a single decent song here - especially considering that this album was meant to act as a springboard for their big leap into the mainstream. It's almost like the pressure of commercial success had frozen their more instinctive talents. I really think it took them up to the release of A Thousand Leaves to properly recover from this disaster of an album which, if anything is actually worse than I remembered.

I think that Lee is an incredible guitarist but have never thought of him as a great songwriter. I totally agree that if he left the band it'd be a disaster, but not for the songs he contributes so much as for what he does musically. So far as I know it was with Dirty that he came closest to leaving. I can't imagine him being that interested in the direction they were going creatively at that time anyway. Can you honestly see him rushing to buy either Goo or Dirty if they'd been made by another band?

That whole would SY buy their own albums thing is interesting. Thurston probably would because he seems to buy everything anyway. Kim, probably - asuming she couldn't listen to Thurston's copy. Steve, no idea. He's a drummer. He probably doesn't buy records at all, being far too busy hitting any convenient flat surface - much to the irritation of anyone around him. I think Lee would've bought everything up to DDN and then maybe A Thousand Leaves, Murray Street and NYC Ghosts and Flowers. As for Goo, can you really see him giving a shit about an album with Kool Thing on it? The guy's a Dead Head at heart.

Thurston plays bass on My Friend Goo.

I got into this album this year actually.

Best Bits: Tunic, Kool Thing, Cinderella's Big Score, Mote, Disappear

W>T>F!!! GOo ist beaut. fun and beautiful, wierd and colourful, quick and rockin'. my fave. As for all the major label/ their big shot at the mainstream hoo ha, the only engagement with that stuff i can see in the album itself is the photos where they seem to be having a great time ripping the piss out of it.

First Sonic Youth record that I've ever bought. It's not one that I play a lot now, but apart from my friend goo and maybe some of the irritating lyrics on some of the songs, I'm still a more than satisfied customer. Lee Ranaldo's vocals on Mote always reminded me of Rem, somehow. It must be the use of a megaphone.

Oops:o

Yep, and that bass tone that d-rail responded to that launches the "My Friend Goo" track was the recording engineering work of T & Butch Vig or perhaps tweak-boosted in mixing by T & Andy Wallace and it seems to be Butch/Andy on trial more than anyone in demonr's post and I can understand where he's coming from (like Lee's Mote vocal tone sounding sorta '90s), but only to a certain degree.

Mildred Pierce is actually one of their earliest songs and is in standard tuning.
And the songs for Goo were written right alongside the songs for Daydream Nation for the most part, so the whole popular notion of them doing a 180 or whatever with Goo is a bit of an invented one. Although, Goo is, of course, the first album for which they were able to first really craft something in a recording studio with known music biz types, and yeah this naturally led to both pros and cons.

Most of the album is in the F#F#F#F#EB tuning, so there are some similar tones at times throughout; I suppose that's why Titanium Expose got all caught up with Kool Thing to demonrail666.

TitEx and Cinderella's = give it up for th3 funky drummer hee. Tunic and Disappearer (I can't help but find d-rail's remarks about it offensive er ah maybe that's my problem) are classic Sonic Youth.

I forget where I rate Goo overall; I think I put it seventh the last time around. So ah, don't think that I'm freakin' with ya too bad...I'm just stating some basics rather badly. willingly incogoofyherent&
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reassessing

 

An album I don't think much about that is surprisingly consistent.

1. Dirty Boots. Amazing opener. Love the guitar tones. The part at the end reminds me of classical music.. just unbelievable. Never a bad part in this song, perhaps the quickest 5 1/2 minutes in Sonic Youth's catalogue. Too bad about the lyrics. Starting your album with the best song may not be the best idea in the world, though..

2. Tunic. The guitar tones are just bizarre.. this song is decent enough, the guitar is compelling, but it doesn't go anywhere and is way too long. Meh.

3. Mary-Christ. Bad production can't hide this is a good song, but it doesn't mean I want to listen to it. Strange shouted background vocals (a Sonic Youth first?) and some cool guitar interplay make it a decent enough listen, but the mixing is just so, so, SO bad.

4. Kool Thing. This song is also way too long and unneccassary, but the riff right after the rapper cameo makes it worth listening to. WEIRD guitar tones again. Geez.

5. Mote. Lee's songs are always the best, musically lyrically vocally. The guitar.. jesus.. what's with the TONES on this album? Haha. How did they get that sound? Again, a bit too long and muddy sounding. I dunno. Just boring.

6. My Friend Goo. Terrible.

7. Disappearer. Amazing! Love the riffs; this song really tells a story. Probably my favorite Sonic Youth video too.

8. Mildred Pierce. Thank god they cut this down from the version that was on the deluxe edition of Goo.. hah.. a nice enough song, SY's first song if I'm not mistaken?, but really really unneccassary.

9. Cinderella's Big Score. Another song that is musically unbelievable with tons of interesting riffs. Probably the most interesting song on the album. The production, like Dirty Boots, doesn't seem so bad here, it isn't distracting like the rest of the songs.

10. Scooter and Jinx. Pointless. 4 layers of guitar feedback and fuzz. Wow. Just shitty filler (wasn't Mildred Pierce filler enough? or My Friend Goo, for that matter?)..

11. Titanium Expose. Another one of the best Sonic Youth songs musically, this song is epic as fuck... there's a part a little into it right after the main riff where it goes "dundundun dun dun dun", which is one of the .. toughest .. things Sonic Youth's played. "Tough" as in "brutal". Awesome. Love the riffs and love how the songs goes from this kinda violent and complex composition into a beautiful little midtempo somber number back into the complexness of the beginning. A fine way to end an album and one of SY's best songs.

Basically, an album with too much filler that is very very forgettable. The production is interesting guitar-wise, but the vocals are way too loud and echoey, and the album as a whole is just too muddy. An interesting listen filled with precisely 3 amazing songs. Whatever. This is the same band who made Daydream Nation?!

Yeah, and the same band that amassed such an amazing body of work that will be listened, talked about and analized for many years to come. First sign that some things aren't worth the harsh criticism treatment that they objectively and simply do not deserve, after all.

Now theres no need to bring sodomy into this.

I coiuldn't help throwing that little innuendo there for good measure.

i think it's a good album where the good songs are really good, i mean, genius good even in some cases (dirty boots, mote, titanium expose), but there's many...failed experiments in pop songwriting married with unconventional/noise rock music/arrangements. my friend goo, scooter and jinx and tunic are abyssmally awful, some of the few instances where sonic youth has put filler on an album on purpose.

to me, it's something that they would perfect in dirty.

I respect yr opinions on this whatever they r. this was my first encounter with SY and still it sounded better and different to all what I've heard b4 and made me check them out, which in the end changed lots in music part of my life. well there was few encounters like that, but this one was the best one.

nice post Atari - them facts.

this album scores low points, because it's the first time that thurston's sassiness starts to shine through (something that would drag down their next two albums and his solo work).

I'm fairly certain that both Thurston and Kim have stated that they are not huge fans of Goo, just for the record

Oh, for fuck's sake atsonicpark! And look, I even like you, if you were in doubt.

"silly rabbit, trix are for kids." - thurston moore

Just shows what different opinions people have. Goo is my favourite SY album by a mile and is pretty much what got me into the band in the first place. Dirty Boots is a great opener. Tunic is utterly immense, both in its sound (great production) and the manner in which it deals with its subject matter (Karen Carpenter) - and Mote is simply No. 1 of the 400+ SY song list. The noise count is pretty high throughout - matched only by the louder bits of The Diamond Sea. Mildred Pierce - well there should be more songs like that (and played on daytime radio too). There's at least one KG song on every album which annoys me, except on Goo. If I had to ditch any albums, A Thousand Leaves and Murray Street would get the boot quickest. Goo is pure punk f*****g rock and the greatest aural noise ever to come out of a pair of speakers. Absolutely outstanding in every respect.