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So, I put on EXPERIMENTAL, JET SET, TRASH, AND NO STAR today for the first time in forever. And I thought it was pretty damn good! I've long hated this record (and I'll always hate Dirty -- nothing will sway me from that), but I've also always believed "Bull in the Heather" is quite likely the best Sonic Youth song. I still believe this is so.. just listen to the way the instruments coalesce.. taken individually, the parts don't really sound like anything, but the way they come together (and since the guitars are extreme-stereo-separated and it was recorded live so you can hear elements of both parts in each speaker), it just sounds amazing..
But surprisingly, the rest of the album holds up better than I thought. The "sassiness" of the tracks still overwhelms them, and the lyrics are still crap ("SILLY WABBIT TWIX ARE FER KIDZ" what the fuck .. "TAKE ONE TWO CUMS DOCTOR'S ORDER I'D LIKE A CHEESEBURGER TO ORDER" Okay, Kim, we know you're going through menopause, but do you really need a fucking greasy-ass hamburger), but the .. "sassy" .. guitar lines are actually pretty cool. "Screaming Skull" rules!! Love the ear-piercing fake-harmonics in the spaces between the riffs and so on. "Waist" is really cool, as well, and some of the slower numbers (especially "Sweet Shine" and "Tokyo Eye") have some really wonderful tones and textures. The album shows Sonic Youth maturing, and it's weird.
Still, it's hard to listen to, knowing that this is the same band who created Daydream Nation before this and Washing Machine directly after this. A band who can craft this amazing epic tracks creating sassy sub-grunge noise rock.. it just seems weird... the lack of Lee songs also stings, and this is also probably the only album where the Kim songs are always better than the Thurston songs. So, it's a weird album. Still, it's way better than Dirty, Nurse, and Rather Ripped, so that's good, and it may even be better than Goo if I'm being generous. Just 14 truely fucked up pop songs. I can't help but feel that the band recorded this and didn't really care what came out of the sessions (starting the album off with an acoustic song seems somewhat daring but also kinda silly since the song isn't even very good).. it just seems kinda effortless.. I mean, just look at the shitty cover art for proof... but yeah. Worth another listen... better than I remembered.
I also listened to Psychic Hearts again recently and that album sucks.
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