Sonic Youth/The Eternal on the World Socialist Web Site
 

Something to read...
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/ja...soni-j08.shtml

interesting viewpoint on an album I like an awful lot.
eternal, and sonic nurse, are, in my mind, the best full albums since daydream

I kind of agree with alot of this, it's refreshing to read.
But the writer goes a bit too far -

"They have not done the hardest work of making a critical engagement with reality. At a time of the worst economic conditions for the population since the Great Depression, when the US government is prosecuting colonial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and threatening to expand its war drive throughout the region, not a whiff of this finds its way into Sonic Youth’s music."

What about, y'know... having fun?
Give them a break, they're just a rock and roll band. They don't claim to be anything else either.

overt politics on music is something best reserved for megadeth or fugazi I think.

Dude ignored "Malibu Gas Station"--it takes some subtlety to pick out the connections to "the world" and this guy lacks it. His favorite song, "Antennae," is totally bourgeois in both form and content...weird for a socialist.

sonic nurse is one of my faves.

but I kinda agree on the review...

I'm conflicted about the album. I definitely agree that it is lukewarm at times. The great guitar jams are very undercut by poor lyrics and melodies on many of the songs, and it leaves the album as a whole sort of forgettable....or at least without any real highlights that hit me with the same intensity as their older work used to.

though i dont like the eternal, i dont agree with the author of that stupid article as well: in my eyes, politics SHOULD NOT find a way into sy music. Political statements in music always makes the music boring and embarassing. I feel embarassed by rockmusicians "fuck bush" or "stop the bomb". What a stupid critic: "sy dont have anything to say." Well, i hope they dont, since i want them to make music and not to write intellectual monologs for socialists.

Assuming we can call feminism politics, they've definitely written quite a lot on that topic. That the author seems to think writing songs focusing on feminist issues is any less a political act than writing ones condemning 'colonial wars' says more about him than it does the band. 'Flower' is one of the most brilliant and powerful political records ever made.

"Their best work, found on the albums Daydream Nation (1988), Goo (1990), and more recently on Murray Street (2002) and Rather Ripped (2006)"

ok....I can agree with the first three....but RR? come on.



EDIT: ps AND I enjoy RR....a little....bit best work? Doubt it.

ps I hate this article.

This is dumb, but so is what the Socialist website said. First of all, Sonic Youth has always been a political band. Did you even listen to one word on Dirty? And they've always been pro-feminism. But there's a difference between being political and having something to say and being retardedly blunt about it. Sonic Youth have generally been fairly artistic when they say what they have to say.

But the criticism on the lyrics being crappy is right on. The lyrics of "Sacred Trickster" are generally pretty shitty, and the obvious and stupid rhymes tossed off as "ironic" and "funny" are one of the things I can't stand about Sonic Youth. And anyway, I think Kim was trying to say some things, it's just that none of the things she was saying haven't been said before (by her no less).


Yeah, I noticed that too. And I mean, anyone who doesn't consider at least one of their Pre-daydream nation albums to be great strikes me as pretty retarded. There are good reasons for any of them to be considered one of their best, but you should at least be able to understand that about ONE of them.

I got bored with politics in music a few years ago when I realized I don't like being preached to, even though I could agree with most of the statements being made.

Honestly, I don't understand how this guy could like DN and Goo but not The Eternal, and then try and call Rather Ripped "intense" and say it "accounts for some of the more interesting and exciting rock music made over the last two decades or more", when it's easily the most straightforward and unadventurous album the group ever made.

It's people like this that make me laugh/scoff at grassroots politics sometimes.

I think at best the reviewer just does not get it...

I know. This is dumb! I hate that platitude- feminism- or anti-racism-talk. These questions are too serious for me, i dont want to tap my toes to them.

Where were all these people who loved Rather Ripped when it came out?

It's not a bad album, sort of Sonic Youth's version of a pop album hearkening to Television and VU. . . but really, among their best? Is this guy on crack?

Then fuck off

nice, thanks.

the guy obviously likes to read himself as he made the same points over and over again. He's entitled to his opinion which I don't agree with. How can I give him any credibility when he fails to even mention the Message of History

I'm agreeing with the article in a way, because it's been a while since the eternal surfaced, and I'm sucker for new sonic sounds always, and I'm always excited when I hear the new songs from them. But now I don't like eternal that much, noise parts on it don't make me want to say 'wow'', and are kinda boring, for example we take antenna and what we know break parts, very similar sounds, the vocals on it don't satisfy me that much as on the sonic nurse for example. it's a good album, but nothing more, it deserves 3,5 points out of six, but they can do better and with more loose than here. that's my few words, don't hate me please :)