Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 08/06/09
Label: Matador

Others will have pointed this out already, but "The Eternal" is an unbeatably apt name for the new Sonic Youth album. They've been throttling guitars for decades - almost three now, since forming in 1981, and that expanse of time has seen the release of 16 studio albums, the majority of them good, many of them great. They've a magnificent calibre, no doubt, but it's also true that the past is starting to weigh somewhat heavier upon Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Steve Shelley and Lee Ranaldo as the years stagger onwards.

How so? Well, "The Eternal" boasts several well-built tracks - "Antenna" is a stuporous suburban daydream of patient, building guitar, "What We Know" more urgent and rattled, while final song "Massage The History" runs sublimely for nearly ten minutes, Gordon's vocal falling somewhere between Portishead's Beth Gibbons and "Je T'aime"'s Jane Birkin as she teases out memories of some buried anguish. That's the thing though - much of this record sounds like it's been pieced together from memory. It's well-built, yes, but almost too well built, many parts sounding like they've been lifted directly from SY's vast back catalogue and slotted into place, like a jigsaw that needed completing, rather than the sprawling documents of noise and confusion this band's name is built upon.

It sounds ridiculous to criticise them for this, but at times SY seem too aware of what's earned them such reverence within indie-rock circles. You imagine in your mind's eye the recording sessions at their Echo Canyon West studio in Hoboken, New York and the moment the time came to add vocals to "The Eternal". Too often it seems like they're just pulling off signature moves - like when Gordon does her constipated brat routine on "Calming The Snake", squealing like she did over "Cross The Breeze" and countless other tracks. The squeal sounded great the first few times, but now it's almost annoying. There seems to be a lack of will to explore, the band too often falling back on tried and trusted methods.

That said, even when they're idling, Sonic Youth are capable of writing better albums than most - "Thunderclap (For Bobby Pyn)" is a righteous strut of guitar fume that lives up to its dedication to the tragic frontman of LA hardcore band The Germs, while the influence of bassist Mark Ibold, who joined three years ago and used to play in Pavement, can be felt in the slacker drift of "Walkin Blue". Mostly though, the feeling is of a band, if not going backwards, then certainly going through the motions.

    by Kev Kharas