http://markprindle.com/sonicya.htm#eternal
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The good news is they're still playing the uptempo guitar rock of
Rather Ripped. "What's the bad news?"
They're dead.
Ha! No no, they're fine. I was just quoting
Night Of The Creeps, a scrumptious horror-comedy of yesteryear. The actual bad news is that the songwriting isn't as consistent this time around. Most of the songs feature one strong melodic hook that the band then pairs with either (a) a long guitar interplay jam, (b) a Thurston Moore riff-by-numbers or (c) an ugly dissonant passage. Let's address each of these aspects now, and by "let's," I mean "let'e" (let me).
First off, the long guitar breaks obviously aren't a surprise; that's what they do. But it's disconcerting when a guitar break has no correlation at all to the song it interrupts. Secondly, Thurston can toss out those hipster 'tuff rock' licks with no effort at all (see his first solo album for proof), and he certainly does so whenever stymied for a melodic idea here. And finally, if all else fails, just play a chord comprised of notes that sound like shit together. Bammo Biff Bap Whammo! Your album is finished.
And yes, I realize I appear to have switched from third to second person at the end of the paragraph there. But what actually happened is that Sonic Youth suddenly walked up behind me so I decided to type it to them rather than saying it out loud. Kim, can you go get me a Diet Coke thanx.
Quick, while she's gone -- dearly aggravating my sense of hearing this time around are some of Kim's worst vocal performances in years. Her disgusting hoarse raspiness nearly destroys the sole mood epic here ("Massage The History," a mood VAMP driven by
acoustic guitars!) as well as turning what might've been a nice ringing guitar clanger ("Calming The Snake") into a sub-
Dirty screaming tantrum. Hey Kim we were talking about Lydia Lunch thanx for the Diet Coke. Lee can you see if that's a chipmunk on the patio.
Okay quick - Lee's career-long inability to sing on key continues here, and his two songwriting contributions might be his worst yet (Polvo fans should enjoy the spectacle of that band's mentors ripping off
Polvo's early sound in "What We Know"). Thurston actually sounds good on the mic though; he puts terrific urgency into his great driving rocker "No Way," and his voice overall continues to mature from the shouty irritant he could be in his youth. Hey Lee oh it was just a bird? Cool I was just telling them how your voice is getting better with age.
In conclusion, it's another great outing for Sonic Youth! Good to see you guys, I'll talk to you later.
Okay they're gone THIS ALBUM BLOWS.
Alright, it doesn't "blow." In fact, it's almost up to their usual standards, full of sparkly harmonic tricks and multi-guitar aural surprises. And honestly, that's the most comforting aspect of the release: they're still exploring the possibilities of sound. Very few of these songs are simple verse/chorus constructions; they often veer off into unexpected little snippets of triple-guitar interplay as beautiful and/or bizarre as any that Sonic Youth has ever created. The problem is that some of the actual verses and choruses could use a bit of work. In addition to weak Lee-nks and Kim vocal abortions discussed above, we also have to contend with a terrible Fugazi rip-off (seriously, am I nuts or does "Leaky Lifeboat" sound exactly like "Do You Like Me"?), Thurston's pleasant-but-underwhelming "Antenna" (a smooth poppy "Sugar Kane" throwback that I loved until I realized I've heard the haunting chorus melody in some other song -- and now I can't sleep until I figure out what song it was!), and "Malibu Gas Station," an awesome driving surf-rock song (about Britney Spears, possibly?) ruined by a throwaway tuff grrl chorus.
What I like and what you like are five different things though. And this is turning out to be a very divisional release: it hasn't even been released to stores yet, but listener response on my FaceBook page is already running the gamut from "I only listened to it once and didnt like it at all and getting to the end of the album felt like a chore" to "Really? I think it's pretty great." I'm not trying to straddle the fence like a coward here; I honestly do vividly love some parts of the record and viciously hate other parts. Embarrassingly, I even enjoy two songs that I should by my own first (full) paragraph
LOATHE; "Poison Arrow" certainly includes its share of gross wrong chords, and "Thunderclap" is
nothing but Thurston Moore riffs-by-numbers. But consarnit, the former's dichotomy between screwball assfuckery and simple tonic/subdominant chords appeals to me greatly, as do the Helmetastic staccato ending and Thurston's strangely Shannon Selberg-sounding vocal. As for the latter, the song basically stinks but the little Kim/Thurston "yeah yeah!" and "whoa whoa!" vocals are so adorable, I want to kiss them both in their aging wrinkly mouth (with halitosis). Plus it's dedicated to Germs singer Darby Crash, which may explain why it's 60 billion times more fun than the song dedicated to Beat Poet Gregory Corso.
By the way, if this review seems contradictory and confused, it's because it
is. When I started writing it this afternoon, I was only going to give the record a 6. But then as I kept listening to the songs over and over while writing, I came to feel that a 6 is way too low for a record with so many excellent passages. Is it full of classic Sonic Youth songs that they'll be playing in concert for years? No. But is it fun, diverse, guitarrific, uptempo and worth several listens to let the cruder portions grow on you? No.
No hang on, yes. Heck, even the ugly Gregory Corso song starts and ends with a killer piece of harmonics interplay.
To complete my excuse for the shoddy review: after deciding to raise the grade to a 7, I had to go back and rewrite certain parts, awkwardly cramming them between insults I'd already written. I still think it's a faulty record (Lee's songs in particular should've been rejected, or at least resung), but not so faulty that it deserves a barely-above-average 6. It may be an extremely low 7 -- but mister, it's Sonic Youth's extremely low 7."