Sonic Youth, a band of shifting sounds and endless influence, has
gone about things ass-backwards. Sonic Youth started out releasing
spiky tunes awash with dissonance and fractured beauty; now, nearly 30
years in, the group’s music has become more ebullient and
digestible—if no less strange.
The Eternal, the group’s 16th full-length album, is a
singular work, with idiosyncratic salutes, via song dedications, to
obscure beat poet Gregory Corso and punk rocker Bobby Pyn (aka Darby
Crash), and folk hero John Fahey, who painted the cover art. It’s also
a labyrinthine album where pop is wrapped in sheets of guitar noise,
while experimental rock is dense with melody.
In other words, it’s a Sonic Youth album.
Opener “Sacred Trickster” begins with some slack, detuned strums
before barreling through its two-minute runtime. Kim Gordon (playing
only guitar on the album) moans and shouts through the
song—fusing it with funny, knowing lines about feminism, music
and magic. “Anti-Orgasm” is appropriately filled with cheeky ’60s
lyrics and streamlined guitar and drum synchronization. Meanwhile,
“Antenna” may be the group’s most cinema-ready anthem, a sprawling
guitar intro that shifts into a cool, driving rhythm; and “What We
Know” is a staccato paint-peeler, with Thurston Moore’s emotive vocals
coating serpentine guitar riffs.
A stunning album of near perfection, The Eternal enters the
album-of-the-year conversation. Closer “Massage the
History”—nearly 10 minutes of drums, bass and guitars shifting
from ethereal to pounding—is a testament to restraint, indulgence
and showmanship.
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2009.
