Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 05/06/06
Label: Geffen

Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore still look unbelievably spry - remarkably so, in fact, for a couple in their mid-40's - but, like Teenage Fanclub, you still have to wonder whether they harbour regret for their choice of band name. Highly apt in their formative years, it now pushes the Trades Description Act to its limit. Sonic Middle Age, more like it.

Currently celebrating their 25th anniversary, it's tempting to break out the silver spoons and cast a nostalgic eye backwards on their glory years - "Evol", "Sister" and, 1988's "Daydream Nation" of course, but also major label offerings like "Goo", "Dirty", "Washing Machine" and "Murray Street". Sonic Youth's career might have followed an almost predictable blueprint, but even among their most teeth-grinding side-projects (anyone worn out their copy of "Goodbye 20th Century"?) they have remained a consistent and reassuring benchmark of quality.

Arguably, they were also the first punk rock jam band: in love with The Ramones and The Grateful Dead. Flirting from art project jazz w*nk to the beautiful brutal brevity of three-chord 1-2-3-4 "Gabba Gabba Hey". And from No Wave through grunge they have survived. A new album every other year. Eternally repelled and fascinated by pop art US iconography. Having lost the services of part-time bassist / sonic visionary Jim O'Rourke during the making of 2004's "Sonic Nurse", that equilibrium looked to be threatened, but against all odds the band have produced their most accessible album in years.

Accessible, but not necessarily commercial. Never ones for a linear approach to songwriting, "Rather Ripped" (a comic book reference, apparently) showcases perfectly the Youth's gift for submerging a classic verse / chorus formula beneath layers of discordant guitars. Less distorted than usual, only the gnarly buzzsaw grunt of "Sleepin' Around" seems over familiar. There's even an acoustic track ("Or").

Elsewhere, subtlety abounds. "What A Waste" has Gordon alluding to Blondie's "Dreaming"; "Turquoise Sun" travels towards the other spectrum of NY punk, through a barrage of Television-esque soloing; and, best of all, "Do You Believe In Rapture?", is a bona fide classic, up there with "Schizophrenia" and "Teenage Riot" in the band's exalted canon. "Do you believe in sweet sensation?" croons Moore, against the most delicate of six-string melodies and an almost non-existent heartbeat of tension. As per usual, Lee Renaldo provides a solitary but customary highlight, with "Rats" doing what "Eric's Trip" and "Mote" did on previous albums.

All in, this is a terrific, life-affirming and, at times, deeply romantic album - one that proves the potentials in both rock'n'roll and the electric guitar (a pleasing concept for Primal Scream fans). Ironically, for those unfamiliar with Sonic Youth, "Rather Ripped" would make a great starting point. Ageless and graceful. Now what did the man say? About being so much older then, but so much younger now?

    by Adam Webb