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Hear Now
By Mike Moody
The Brownsville Herald
SONIC YOUTH – ‘RATHER RIPPED’ (Geffen) — July 7,2006 — Twenty-four years into its influential career, Sonic Youth sounds more classic than complacent on album number 21. New York’s archetypal alternative rock band gracefully reconciles the experimental noise sound of its past with a new fondness for pop and melody on “Rather Ripped.”
The opener “Reena” sounds inviting and cheery with vocalist/bassist Kim Gordon’s distinctive vocal huff riding a pair of dueling, bouncing electric guitars.
“Incinerate” sounds even more sincere and awake. Singer/guitarist Thurston Moore is in full crooner mode here, a posture he probably picked up while covering the Carpenter’s “Superstar” a few years back. The track is smooth but never slight. Lyrics like “The firefighters hold me down/I don’t care, I’ll burn anyhow” revisit the band’s teen angst bluster. Like most of the more tender tracks on “Rather Ripped,” it makes room for some thrilling guitar spiraling by Moore and Lee Ranaldo.
“Jams Run Free” is anything but a boring jam song. It’s one of the bands best, most sobering tracks. It’s an organic, mid-tempo ballad that sounds smart and sunny, and not in that Coldplay way. The song makes great use of the tension between the band’s new guitar pop smarts and love of loud, guttural street noise.
Perhaps, like the Velvet Underground in the late ‘70s, Sonic Youth’s more accessible — but no less ambitious or urgent — sound is rooted in a need to be remembered by the masses. Like 2004’s “Sonic Nurse,” “Rather Ripped” is sparky, more melodic and tender than fringe delights like 2000’s “NYC Ghosts and Flowers.” The material hasn’t gotten softer; it’s just gotten warmer.
Posted on Jul 07, 06 | 12:01 am