[Severian]

Originally Posted by Antagon

 

First snowfall this season in Vienna today, so I had to think of Hoarfrost. Then I had it stuck in my head for the remainder of the day. Is it weird I really love and respect ATL as a collection of great solitary tunes, but not necessarily as an album? I mean, so many tracks with such a dreamy atmosphere on there, but the sequencing just seems really off to me - little cohesion, tonal whiplash at times. It just doesn't flow as nicely as some of my Youf-favorites do. It feels like it was spliced together from two very different albums. And still, it holds a special place in my heart - Sunday actually got me into their music, the aforementioned Hoarfrost is absolutely sublime in its introspective romanticism, Wild Flower Soul wonderfully playful, Female Mechanic Now On Duty and French Tickler are awesomely off-kilter, Hits Of Sunshine drifts into summery beat reveries and so on. Hardly any album out there I'm so split on.

I think I prefer it to Washing Machine. Yeah it’s a bit all over the place, but there are few off moments (“… He’s just a kitttttttennnn” notwithstanding), and all the songs basically climax in one way or another in a way that makes the whole journey quite worth it.

Plus, Hoarfrost is without question one of their very songs, and Heather Angel’s outro is as perfectly, effortlessly representative of Sonic Youth’s essence as any other musical moment I can think of.