Sonic Youth Album: “Rather Ripped”

Sonic Youth's 20th studio album, "Rather Ripped," is a grand-slam effort that topples their previous effort "Sonic Nurse". This disc harbors a glorious smattering of smooth, breezy songs that are uniquely Sonic Youth, while also claiming their most accessible sounds yet.

The album opens with the melodious and bouncy "Reena," sung by Kim Gordon (whose voice sounds sweeter than ever before), followed by a similarly tuneful Thurston Moore track, "Incinerate". Both point with big, obtrusive thumbs in the direction this album is headed...right up the old hill.

However, on "Do You Believe In Rapture," you can just feel this high-pitched spaz-noise insanity bubbling just below the surface, yet the song ends too fast (and without climax) and this potential rock-jam-gem leaves the listener panting for something...more.

After a few slightly mediocre songs ("Sleepin' Around" and "What A Waste"), that thirst is quenched in the form of "Jams Run Free," a luminescent Gordon track that beams wildly.

Afterward is "Rats," which is sadly Lee Ranaldo's only vocal contribution to "Rather Ripped". This tune is a jazzy and crawling and evokes the spacious, emotive "Mote" from 1991's "Goo". Tailing "Rats" is the luscious, sprawling "Turquoise Boy" written by Moore and sung by a wispy and tame Gordon.

Later on, the song "Pink Steam" sticks out because of the five+ minute noise-driven intro, followed by little than a minute of Thurston singing. Finally, the album closer "Or," features an almost Southern acoustic guitar and thunderous rhythm section. Ending a highly evolved collection of springy, gentle songs with a primitive one.

This is Sonic Youth's most accessible and listener-friendly CD in quite awhile, but I think the hardcore SY fans will still like it. In the past I was able to appreciate their occasional shrieking experimental noise pieces from an abstract art perspective, but that didn't make for music that I went back to for repeat listenings. On the Ripped CD, the noise and distortion are more directly in service of the melodies, and some excellent melodies there are indeed. I'm particularly impressed with "Turquoise Boy," which features an ethereal vocal from Kim (she and Thurston are as ultra-cool and laid-back as ever on the new songs) and a superb balance between chaos and control. I also like the spooky Doors-ish feel of "Rats," and just about all the other songs are great too. The whole album just has a combination of factors that make it one of the best SY discs ever. (The "fake bootleg" cover art is pretty bad, though.)

Hands down, I'm a huge SY fan, but not an uncritical one, so when they started getting into some of their more overtly avant garde material in the late 90's they kinda lost me. I respect what they were doing, but just couldn't listen to a whole CD the way I could with so many of their other albums (Sister, Daydream Nation, and Goo being my favorites). So when Rather Ripped came out I approached cautiously, and was pleasantly surprised. This album seems to come full circle for them, returning to their art-punk roots, but with the sensibility, creativity, and maturity of a band that has been rocking for nearly a quarter century. It is definitely more toned down than some of their work in the 80's, but hits on some great grooves. Nearly every song on the album is solid, with standouts for me being Pink Steam (an eerie jam with with Moore on vocals), Rats (a classic Ranaldo song with a great funky bass line) and Turquoise Boy (a dream-like quality dominates this song a la Diamond Sea). For me, this is their best album as a whole since Goo. It incorporates some of their most successful trademark sounds, without repeating themselves. Do yourself a favor and get this album. You won't be disappointed

Sonic Youth is in control of their sound and style to the point where they can make a record that sounds like they could have thrown it together in a couple of hours, yet is totally worthwhile. This is the SY album for everybody - longtime fans will recognize the semi-psychedelic dissonace, yet there's nothing too grating to scare away a newcomer who might not want to have their head pounded in with a White Light/White Heat experimental fuzzfest. All of the tracks flow together so smoothly that it's almost pointless to single any of them out as being extraordinary, but if I was going to pull one of the songs to put on a mix CD, it would either be "Incinerate," which reminds me of SY's cover of "Hot Wire My Heart" from Sister, or "Pink Steam," a winding, soft rocket-propelled track that has such a cool instumental backing that you are almost disappointed when Thurston Moore starts singing 4 minutes into it. A hater could argue that this is Sonic Youth Lite, but there is not one note on this album that rings false. It's easy but it's cool.

This record is naked. I don't know what else to say about it.

It follows the same light-handed "tea & brunch" approach as Sonic Nurse but with very little avant/art school filler and signature jam sequences. All that aside, it sounds like a (matured) Sonic Youth record. The vocal patterns are what you'd expect. The lyrics are up to par. The familiar Thurston/Ranaldo song structures haven't gone anywhere. Kim Gordon is still Kim Gordon and Steve Shelly is still fantastic.

I could go on and on about the holy trilogy (evol, sister & daydream nation) and I could compare and contrast the band from its inception to present, but what good would that do? Those records are 2 decades old (or close to it) and haven't represented the band's sound in about that long.

The fact is their style is always evolving creatively. Each era of the band is light years away from the previous but it always comes out sounding like Sonic Youth. "Rather Ripped", with it's stripped down sound, seems like a transitional record to me. Like "Goo" and "A Thousand Leaves", it follows similar patterns to the record before it but gives you an idea of what's on the horizon (and sadly, it looks like Jim O'Rourke isn't in the equation any longer).

This record hasn't hit me as instantly as some of their previous material but I can already tell its going to be in my regular rotation for a while. There are a few tracks where it sounds like they didn't try, but then a song like "pink steam" comes on and it makes you listen to the whole record again and appreciate it. I love this band and it doesn't look like they are leaving any time soon. This release is great.

If you're a new listener to the band, "Rather Ripped" probably isn't the record for you. It's hard to recommend a starting point, but I started at "Sister".