Sonic Youth Album: “Dirty: Deluxe Edition”

I agree with both sides on this one. On one side, this record sounds 100% better (no pun intended) than the original. I saw them live last year and this remaster actually sounds really close to their live sound. On the other hand, the reissue is priced at a rediculous amount. The solution? By it used like I did. I got it off of half.com for $13 (plus shipping). It's definately worth it just for the sound quality alone, let alone the additional b-sides, nice packaging, and liner notes.

This release is really great. Sort of irks me that the original release (that I owned) is such a bad mix compared. But unlike many other re-release remixes, this one gives you more than 1-cd worth of bonus tracks (some of the extra tracks are on disk 1). Anyway, I checked it out from the public library and figured I'd just listen to the extras. But the remixes of the old songs are really compelling. It's almost like the original is FM radio and this one is CD. Whatever. I don't know if you "aint alternative if you don't own this album" but I can definitely say it's the best release I've heard in several years--and it's an "oldie".

Regrettably, Sonic Youth haven't gotten as much credit as they deserve as some of the original purveyors of what has since come to be labelled alternative rock, but "Dirty" provides convincing proof that they just may have done it better than anyone else. Many of the rock bands that gained prominence around this time brought somewhat of an unschooled ethic to their sound, but "Dirty" is a unique, diverse, and immensely enjoyable listen that may well have seen the Youth at the height of their powers. Many of the rock bands that gained prominence around this time brought somewhat of an unschooled ethic to their sound, but these guys (and girl) somehow managed to combine that rawness with their brilliant musicianship to give listeners the best of both worlds. This is yet another one of those albums I wish I had gotten years ago, but I guess I wouldn't have appreciated it that much back then.

Some of the extended, intricate instrumental passages that characterized earlier albums are still present, but for the most part the songs here are shorter, sharper, and more efficient than their predecessors, continuing the process that was begun right around "Goo." Yes, by this point the band had embraced a more traditional rock songwriting format, but these songs rock so hard and so well I can't imagine anyone objecting. Witness the hard-driving metallic riffage and swirling feedback of "100%," the supremely catchy hooks of "Sugar Kane," the thumping rhythms of "Youth Against Fascism," and the primal force of "Purr," which combine with Thurston Moore's swaggering vocals to create significantly more fun and interesting listens than anything Nirvana and Pearl Jam were putting out at the time, let alone today's horrible faux-grunge knockoffs like Nickelback and Puddle of Mudd. Elsewhere, Kim Gordon contributes her trademark punkish aggression on "Swimsuit Issue" and "Drunken Butterfly" and some eerily atmospheric vocals on the edgy "Shoot" and the haunting "The Strip." Another classic, "Theresa's Sound-World," starts out slow and subdued before steadily building to a series of crescendos and some great instrumental segments where Thurston and Lee Ranaldo get to demonstrate their grasp of subtle tonalities.

And just in case all that's not enough, "Dirty" has now been repackaged with enough bonus material to make collectors salivate all over themselves. Tacked on to the end of the original album are four B-sides of varying quality, and even better, there's a whole bonus disc constisting almost entirely of instrumental tracks, many of which eventually found their way onto the album in altered forms. Much as I like the vocals on the finished products, listening to the all-instrumental rehearsal takes provides a whole new perspective enabling the listener to focus in on the intricacies of the music with nothing getting in the way. Great stuff this "Dirty" is, and with all the bonus material this reissue is more than worth its price tag.

Sonic Youth's dirty was there last rock album, after this the band explored there own sound as opposed to the grunge scene. This Album now two discs is a big improvement(not that it already wasn't great). The album sounds much clearer and in a general sense better. The new b-sides and the rehersal recordings are great. I recommend this to any SY fan.

I was a college DJ in the early '90s and was quite dismissive when this album was first released. With Butch Vig (_Nevermind_'s producer) at the helm and the album title of _Dirty_ (which appeared like transparent pandering to the "grunge" scene), I thought Sonic Youth had lost it, having peaked with _Daydream Nation_. But I was wrong. Vig does an excellent job polishing their sound and foregrounding how LOUD Sonic Youth can be, without sacrificing their complexity. Disc 2 is also filled with gems: mostly instrumental recordings that give a sense of SY's composition process, but they also manage to stand on their own. Perfect backdrop music. Highly recommended.