The idea of Sonic Youth mellowing with age is an odd one. After all, few bands have brought so much authentically avant-garde music so close to the mainstream. And as their recent curatorship and performance at All Tomorrow's Parties proved, their desire to test the parameters of rock remains undimmed.
Nevertheless "Sonic Nurse", their 19th album, is startling for the comparative lack of skronk and cacophony in its ten tracks.
Instead, the quintet focus on a dry, relaxed extrapolation of their sound, manoeuvring it closer to an idea of classic rock than radical noise. Of course, it still sounds utterly like Sonic Youth: no-one would mistake those brittle tunings for Fleetwood Mac, no matter how much Thurston Moore might encourage the comparison.
Even Kim Gordon, for the past few years the most disruptive and splenetic band member, is subdued: "Dude Ranch Nurse" and "I Love You Golden Blue" are her most tender and dreamy songs in years. Meanwhile, Moore's contributions – "Peace Attack", "The Dripping Dream", "New Hampshire" and "Stones" - unravel with an equally measured, intricate grace.
They rarely quite hit the transcendent highs of 2002's magnificent "Murray Street". But the point some five minutes into "Stones", when characteristic ebbing guitars and rumbling toms provide an atmospheric overture to Moore's returning, lurching riff, is a great moment from a band whose grasp of rock dynamics has always been as strong as their penchant for experimentation.
There's a sense that these seasoned explorers have taken understatement, prettiness and accessibility as a creative challenge rather than a middle-aged cop-out. What emerges is Sonic Youth at complete ease with themselves and their music, operating simultaneously at the peak of their powers and with a powerful, audacious restraint.
Anyone looking for an entry point into the catalogue of this extraordinary band would do well to start their long and rewarding journey here.
