Disco de Sonic Youth: “Bad Moon Rising”

Bad Moon Rising is arguably the best Sonic Youth album that I own (their debut "Confusion is Sex" comes in at a close second). Straddling the chasm between sonorous ambient noise and demonic art-punk fury, BMR raises out of the ashes of these contradictions to create a vicious beautiful sound. One song sounds like a foghorn in a foggy New York City night, until the song finally evolves, like a mutant tadpole, into a coherent song. Death Valley '69 is an anthem to bad trips and the dark psyche of the Sixties. A keeper. Insane and delicious. Enjoy.

Probebly the best album S Y ever done. It was my first Sonic product and my first contact with experimental music, I was amazed. The following year, Bad Moon Rising, sneaked in to my record player and cried out all that fury and anger that only Sonic could create. The opening tune, which is totaly instrumental takes the listener to the nest track, "Brave man run" and Kim Gordon, the bas, are letting us in to her mind. Every member of the band leaves an eternal voice behind and all that's inside of'em are expressed by their instruments and vocals. The most complex and creative record made in modern time. Bad Moon Rising got me in to similar music and a new world was exposed for me.

After the claustrophobic nightmare ( I mean that as a compliment ) of Confusion is Sex came Bad Moon Rising. And yes it does seem quite a bipolar album. Not as scary as Confusion but then not as entirely mellow as their recent releases. It remains enigmatic though as while listening to this you get the sense of a strange calm with this CD and that's odd given the weird guitar noise that comes with this CD. Obviously the most accessible track here is Death Valley 69 with additional vocals from Lydia Lunch. It's good but what makes this album really good is it's sense of flow - there's no sense of upstaging the other one or the other track. Sure it has it's highlights but it doesn't feel like a disjointed album

I can ramble on about this album for ages because I really love it to bits.....this is the best I can do to try and review this album without running to the point of meaningless jibberish.....buy the album for yourself and see for yourself whether you agree with me or not

This album is the best that Sonic Youth ever put out. This is the fullest expression of what this band was trying to achieve with its experimental sound. Guitars drift in and out, bass lines drive pounding rhythmically, the vocals carry both a sense of yearning and disillusionment. If you listen between songs you can hear distorted cut-up samples from the Stooges first album- Intentional or not this gives a nod to the forerunners of anti-anthem garage music, who I am sure gave much inspiration to this band. If you like the poppy 90's Sonic Youth (Goo-Dirty), then this album is probably not for you, but if you like the earlier sound- the dark experimental sound, then yes you should get this album.

This is an album to listen to with your eyes closed. It's not the kind of record that you would sit in a chair and skip through certain tracks. It's a unity of atmospheric soundscapes. My favourite time to listen to this is when I'm lying down and feeling extremely relaxed and I can just close my eyes and leave this record transport my mind to places that are colourful and often deranged. I Love Her All The Time is a wonderful piece that breezes by in a smooth haze and it makes me forget that I'm listening to music. Thurston Moores poetic genius shines brightly on I'm Insane but unless you approach music as an art-form, you more than likely will just consider this record 'a load of noise.' It is much more than that to the open-minded listener. Ghost Bitch is a great blend of poetry and feedback that is led by Kim Gordon. The mid-section of this album joins together in one big section of FX pedal beauty and haunting guitar noises and is quite fascinating to experience. Death Valley '69 seems to be the most popular song on this album judging by the opinions of the majority who've reviewed this. It is quite a track, the trashy verse which is probably the most simple structure on this album and then the marvellous break which builds a huge intensity and captures a great haunting take on the well-known subject of the song. After this there is the first few seconds of silence which seperates the vibe of the original BMR tracklist to the added on Hallowe'en EP. The EP adds a nice coda to the CD, a collection of avant-garde poetic dronish tunes which are really great to listen to when you're in a zone of imagination and detatchment from the bore that is reality. I've given this 4 stars because that's what I feel it deserves. If I was to give every record that I loved 5 stars it would really be pointless to review records at all because 5 stars is more meaningful when given occasionally to extremely special records that are absolutely mind-blowing. Sonic Youth definitly have made some 5 star records. This is a really good album that is indispensable to Sonic Youth fans because of the fact that it sounds like nothing else they've put out and essential to music-lovers because there's a good chance they may approach music in a totally different mindset after hearing this.