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It was great to listen through experimental... on the other 'reassessing...' thread, so thought I'd do the same with this album: one I rarely listen to, so another spin is gonna be interesting.
So, here goes:
1. Becuz. Simple but really hooky opener that's quintessential mid-career Sonic Youth. KG is still doing the 'little girl lost' vocal thing but it's a lot less over the top here. Good stuff.
2. Junkie's Promise. A decent slowly chugging rocker that maintains the pace set by 'Becuz' before going all 'Sonic Youthy' in the last third. Nice.
3. Saucer-Like. Not one of my fave LR songs, but there's the guitar part here that always reminds me of the Byrds' Eight Miles High. Pleasant but hardly amazing.
4. Washing Machine. This is a pretty annoying KG plodathon, until the monologue bit in the middle, and that nice 'wash-of-sound' guitar ending.
5. Unwind. Nice one to stick on just before you're going to sleep. Guaranteed you won't be awake by the time it finishes. Reminds me of Pavement at their most dull. Some quite nice building guitar stuff in the second half mind you - if you're still awake to hear it, of course.
6. Little Trouble Girl. It's the Shangri-Las laying on a psychiatrist's couch. I want to think that's a great idea, and maybe it is. But this really is an awful song.
7. No Queen Blues. A decent enough laid back chugger with the trade mark 'Sonic Youthy' bit at the end again. The real problem is the vocals. None of SY have very good singing voices and one of the things I find so frustrating about this period is how much emphasis they put on the vocals. Thurston Kim and Lee have always been better shouters than singers.
8. Panty-Lies. I'm beginning to remember why I so rarely listen to this album. Self-conscious Poly-Styrene-isms don't work here at ALL!
9. Untitled. Nice little guitar thingy.
10. Skip Tracer. Lee doing his usual beat poetry shenanigans. Nice but nothing great. Music is pretty boring for him. Again, drop the vocals lower...please or just shout. anything. just don't SING!
11. Diamond Sea. I know this has its fans on here and (vocals aside) it does have some awesome moments. Musically the best thing on the album by far. I still can't see how it's the classic that some say it is though. Maybe if they could've kept it as an instrumental - which, to be fair, it basically is anyway.
Even the good tracks on here (Becuz, Junkie's Theme and Diamond Sea) aren't THAT great, and certainly don't save what I really think is one of SY's worst albums.
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