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Sonic Youth
RATHER RIPPED
New York noise-rock pioneers Sonic Youth return with Rather Ripped. Calling the hugely influential co-ed band’s new record noise, however, doesn’t do it justice. This frequently melodic collection of songs is among the band’s strongest and most accessible discs.
As usual, guitarist Thurston Moore and bassist Kim Gordon sing most of the band’s communally composed songs. Husky-toned Gordon opens the 12-song set with “Reena,” a shimmering sample of Sonic Youth as a pop band. Not that the band has abandoned its noise origins. “Jams Run Free,” another of the Gordon-sung songs, sounds as if it goes space tripping when Moore and Lee Renaldo’s guitars weave above Steve Shelley’s locomotive drums.
Two songs — the Renaldo-sung “Rats,” featuring an especially propulsive rhythm section from Gordon and Shelley, and “Turquoise Boy,” featuring lyrical lead guitar and cascading guitar arpeggios — summon audio memories of that adventurous, genre-expanding ’60s band, Spirit.
Another great thing about Rather Ripped is its warmth. There’s no info in the CD booklet about recording equipment or instruments, but an inside photo shows Gordon holding a classic Gibson Firebird bass. The disc is so beautifully recorded, it must have been made using analog tape, tube amps, the whole retro-audio enchilada.
John Wirt