http://www.metronews.ca/entertainmen...w.asp?id=16813
Sonic Youth
Album: Rather Ripped
Label: Geffen/Universal
Released: Yesterday
**** (out of five)
Had this been 20 albums and 25 years ago, this New York post-punk foursome wouldn’t even dream of deliberately sounding this melodic.
With their Velvet Underground-fuelled austerity and feedback-laden dischordancies, Sonic Youth helped cement this kind of do-it-yourself template for which the likes of the Pixies, Breeders and, to some degree, the Smashing Pumpkins would follow.
As you’re finger-snapping along to Reena, Incinerate, Do You Believe In Rapture? and The Neutral, singer-guitarist Thurston Moore, his bassist-singer wife Kim Gordon, guitarist Lee Ranaldo and drummer Steve Shelley refuse to compromise on any DIY rawness.
But Sonic Youth truly let the indie-inspired momentum fly on Sleepin’ Around, closing track Or and the two Gordon-led efforts What A Waste and Jams Run Free, the latter powered by a Pumpkins-a-la-1979-esque rhythm. Wailing feedback is kept to a minimum — until all hell breaks loose on Rats.
IAN NATHANSON/METRO TORONTO