Sonic Youth Album: “Murray Street”

Sonic Youth are simply one of the best alternative bands around, right up there with multi-talented experimentalist John Zorn. This album, like their others, is several things: beautiful, transcendant, melodic, melancholy, rocking, noisy, and atmospheric; often within the same song. "Disconnection Notice" and "Karen Revisited" are probably the best songs, the latter starts out with beautiful song structure, then erupts into explosive noise, then into several minutes of awesome underwater exploration that shifts and rumbles like the tides of the ocean. "Rain On Tin" has a short stanza, then it turns into 3 0r 4 minutes of glorious free jazz rock improv; "Sympathy For The Strawberry" is equally amazing, starting out with the improvisation rather than ending with it, then metamorphosizing perfectly into the soul meets hiphop meets sad shakuchia meets lovely chorus that it is, it then ends the same way it started--with eruptive improvisation. The anger and rebellious behaviour of the album's shortest and most accessible song, "Plastic Sun", is fully realized and right on, attacking the state of things in mainstream entertainment industries as well as the brutal manipulative state of the governing world in general. The lyrics for "Radical Adults..." are probably the best, but the coolest thing about this song is the wild horn-filled insanity at the end...it's sounds like Naked City came along for the ride or something. "The Empty Page" is as well a good peice, but I found myself skipping over it to get to the really good stuff. If there is any hype for this album, believe it. This is another masterpeice by the Sonic Youth.

From the very first opening notes of "The Empty Page", Jim O'Rourke's presence is already noticeable with the shimmering guitars and smooth rhythm section highlighting Thurston's enchanting, childlike voice. With the addition of a fifth member, that member being gifted post-rock alum Jim O'Rourke, Sonic Youth have expanded their sound for their latest effort "Murray Street" and they feel looser and more alive than ever. Deemed the band's "classic rock record" by Thurston Moore himself, Murray Street is one of the best guitar albums to come along in a long time, with the band spotlighting everything from the dense metal esque riffage of "Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style" to the intricate, interlocking dual guitars on "Rain on Tin", reminiscent of Television's Marquee Moon or the King Crimson 80s incarnation. Opting for vibrant waves of melody over juxtaposed noise, some fans of Sonic Youth may be disappointed at the seeming accessibility of this album, but Murray Street, while more melodic than most previous SY outings, certainly doesn't lack any edge. Instead, the noise and melody are so deeply melded and perfectly fused that the album simply sounds almost too cohesive for how sonically powerful it really is. As part 2 of Sonic Youth's planned trilogy, Murray Street is set up in similar fashion to NYC Ghosts and Flowers containing an extended Ranaldo song as the centerpiece, just like the title track on the preceding album, that spotlights Lee Ranaldo's trademark strangely warm, deadpan vocal delivery. Although a perfect album in nearly every way, the one song that pulls this album down is Kim Gordon's aggressive rant: "Plastic Sun". Not to say that this song is bad and the album still precedes pretty unfettered even with it included, but "Plastic Sun" would fit much better on one of Sonic Youth's early EPs like "Confusion is Sex" sounding out of place in the much more developed atmosphere of Murray Street. However, Kim Gordon more than makes up for the less than perfect "Plastic Sun" with her tense, sinister album closer "Sympathy for the Strawberry". The combining of Sonic Youth's noise guru status and Jim O'Rourke's Post-Rock prowess works perfectly and the intense beauty and purity of the all the music presented on this album is enough to change one's perception of what good music really is. With most of the members of Sonic Youth going on, or in, their 40s, it is amazing that a band with such rapidly ageing members could make an album so full of life and vitality. One of the most uplifting and optimistic albums of the year, Murray Street is as detailed as it is catchy and without a doubt belongs in any and every good CD collection.

I have always been a Sonic Youth fan ever since I was 15, but I never wanted to get any of their albums. That was until I heard samples off of Murray Street. I liked what I heard, and bought it a few weeks later. This album is definetly more song-orientated, but it's still quite instrumental too. New member Jim O'Rourke helps give more texture to the band's already limitless sound, and at times, there was a bit of Sunn sound to the album. (Karen Revisited's long ambient section comes to mind.) There are a few songs that are real sweet and happy, but there are some sad and melancholy songs too, such as Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style, and the sweet Sympathy for the Strawberry, which has a Sigur Ros ring to it. Of course, there is some free form guitar noodling as well, like on Rain On Tin and Karen Revisited, which is my favorite. A good album for starters, it shows Sonic Youth as a more structured band than the last few albums.

Wow! The Men and the Woman with the screwdrivers in their guitars have done it again. Another classic album from Sonic Youth and in my opinion it's their best outing since "Dirty". The addition of Jim O'Rourke on bass shifts Kim onto guitar creating a three pronged panzer axe attack, LOVE IT! There are many great things about "Murray Street" - the arrangements, intricate structures and melodies, killer distortion effects (without an over-use of guitar), and intelligent lyrics. There isn't a track on the LP I don't like, and even though the music isn't groundbreaking or Avant Garde in any sense, it is FAB!

The opening track "The Empty Page" launches you directly into Sonic Youths' world. "Disconnection Notice", with its moody background guitars and softly spoken vocals is an instant hit. The feedback towards the end of the track is fantastic. "Rain on Tin" (my favourite of the whole set) is yet another great guitar outing. It's even a bit 'Television' in places!!! The intricate way the guitars play against each other works well... The vocals are over within the first minute and then we're treated to a 7-minute instrumental... Nebulous! "Karen Revisited" is another fabulous track! The sublime lyrics and 8-minute 'experimental' outro are excellent. "Radical Adults lick Godhead style"??? With a title like that who cares what the music sounds like!! But it is yet another great track! "Plastic Sun" is an excellent short/snappy piece (although the music does sound a bit Fall/Pavement-ish). The finale "Sympathy for the Strawberry" is Cozmik!! Kim's vocals even sound a bit like Mo Tucker in the VU track "The Murder Mystery". Great Bass playing and hectic guitars in the intro, and the way it moves into the track is cool. This song certainly has a Velvets feel to it, awesome!!

This album's still on my play list after 4 months. It makes great listening on bus/train journeys (I do a lot of travelling). There are some real classics here and I will definitely be re-visiting "Murray Street" for years to come.

Faith No More is responsible for long ago providing me a comfy bridge between metal and 'alternative' music, leading me out of the abyss and introducing me to a wider world of music. Being thirsty for new sounds, I signed on to one of the Columbia House scams and ordered a bunch of CDs from their 'alternative' section. The only one that really stuck with me was Sonic Youth's Dirty. From that point on I was a huge Sonic Youth fan. I quickly bought up all their earlier albums and even learned how to tune my guitar to some of the strange settings that Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo used. I stayed devoted to the band through Washing Maching, but quickly lost interest in all of their following material. Thousand Leaves and NYC Ghosts and Flowers just didn't do much for me, and their several experimental EPs on SYR were too experimental.

I had all but forgotten about Sonic Youth up until two weeks ago. I didn't even know they had a new album coming out. Then some reviews for Murray Street started rolling in, which told of a Sonic Youth that had regained much of what made them popular in the first place. Reviewers made bold claims about the band sounding better than they ever have and some even went so far as to compare the new album to the classic Daydream Nation album of 1988. I was intrigued, yet remained skeptical until I heard a couple songs on the local college radio station, songs that plucked the rusty and oddly-tuned guitar strings in my heart that hadn't been touched since 1995. With the old feelings overwhelming me, I went and bought Murray Street as soon as I could. The reviews were true. The comparisons were true. I was so happy to experience a truly great Sonic Youth album again after so many years that it nearly moved me to tears.

I wont get into any technical aspects, since those are usually boring, highly opinionated and best left to music critics, a class of people that I am glad to not fit in. But I will say the tempo is quite relaxed throughout the album. The weaving guitars of Moore, Renaldo and O'Rourke do for geeky audiophiles what Grateful Dead jams do for hippies. There are excellent melodies everywhere, even for the usually tuneless Kim Gordan, whose two songs are pushed to the tail end of the album, where they fit perfectly. There are no snags for me on this album. From start to finish it holds me in a trance and makes it hard for me to do anything else but listen, and then let out a satisfied sigh at the end right before I press 'play' again.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who have plenty of problems with this album that they wish to waste plenty of words describing, but consider this: If it can bring back a jaded fan and rekindle the magic, what more is there really to say? Just listen and enjoy, which is what it was made for in the first place.