Sonic Youth Album: “Screaming Fields of Sonic Love”

In 1995, Sonic Youth's record company decided to re-release all six of the band's seminal 1980's albums: the violent, harsh 'Confusion is Sex'; the unsettling dreamscapes of 'Bad Moon Rising'; the pulsing psychedelic 'EVOL'; the straightforward indie-rock of 'Sister'; the avant-garde tribute to Madonna `Ciccone Youth'; and the quasi-symphonic masterpiece 'Daydream Nation.' To promote these reissues, DGC also issued this record, an assortment of 17 songs from the band's 1980's catalog. By no means would anyone consider Sonic Youth a singles band (they only issued six singles in their first nine years as a band; seven if you count "Into the Groove(y)" from the Ciccone Youth LP). But the band sounds surprisingly good stripped down to the singles and key album tracks. This unconventionally-sequenced retrospective (it begins with the selections from `Daydream Nation' and goes back to the earlier, less commercial songs) shows how the band developed from a cooler-than-thou art-noise clique into one of the most creative and enduring bands in rock history. The long and graceful interlocking guitar lines of "Teen Age Riot" and "Candle," the quintessential indie love song "Cotton Crown," the shimmering psychedelia of "Shadow of a Doubt," and the forbidding sturm und drang of "Death Valley 69" and "Inhuman" all make a case on how no one could touch Sonic Youth in the 80's, and for those looking to familiarize themselves with the group, this is an excellent place to begin.

I give it a five for the music, but a 2 for the concept. This is a great release for those people who are not going to take the effort to purchase all of the releases that these songs come from (although I think that you get a better experience from their music when it has not been removed from its context as a whole...i.e. the album it was released on). If you like this I suggest buying Confusion is Sex/Kill Yr. Idols + (if you can find it) their self titled e.p. If you like those, try Sonic Death Live (again, if you can find it)...that is about as intense as they get on their own.

Yeah, pretty much every band that's been around a long time and is at all respected in the music world is kind of expected to put out a kind of cult-favorites/greatest-hits album, but in Sonic Youth's case, all of their songs are cult favorites. And none are really hits; "Teenage Riot", "Dv69", and "Bull in the Heather" are pretty much as close as they come. I bought this record for "I dreamed I dream" alone (since an out-of-print SY ep is literally nonexistent in such a city as Nashville), and although I think it's worth it for such a beautiful song (it's probably my all-time favorite). I suppose this would be a decent album for any SY novice, but it certainly is no alternative to buying the separate albums, since, well, first of all, how the hell did they decide which songs to put on "Screaming Fields"? Why are such classics as Schizophrenia, In the Kingdom #19, I Wanna Be Yr Dog, Silver Rocket, The Sprawl, Burning Spear, Ghost Bitch, The Good and the Bad, and Pipeline/Kill Time kept off of a kind of "best of" album? I just don't find that a "best of" can be done with Sonic Youth, especially a choice of only 17 of their wonderful songs....

This is basically a collection of 1980's Sonic Youth. After these songs they switched labels, released "Goo", and the rest is history. It's been said that these are not THE best songs which may be true, but it is a nice sampling of that era. The good news is that if you like this collection, you should easily enjoy the 90's stuff and beyond even more. This is good to have for classics like "Teen Age Riot", "Kotton Krown", and the odd Madonna cover "Into The Groove (y)". Plus the real early songs. This runs in reverse chronological order by the way. Now they just need a more recent "Best Of". Can't wait to see them in 2 weeks.

sonic youth are a great band, there is no doubt about it. and i do love most of the songs on this cd, but they don't work together. sonic youth isn't the type of band who gets a best of album. you could put them on a mix tape, but that's it. sonic youth do albums. not hits.

take your money and buy a copy of the s/t ep. you could probably find it on ebay. or get a copy of "nyc ghosts and flowers" or maybe "sister."