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.jpg) Sonic Youth has always dabbled with the eccentric qualities of recorded music. However, they have spent the last few years putting out music with strong pop tendencies, focusing on arrangement and hooks. Last year Sonic Youth returned to creating music that was interesting, intense, and certainly weird.
Sonic Youth has had many different phases in their long career, but they have always remained original and inspiring to legions of musicians. They spent the 80's playing very noisy, wild, and pretty much out of tune rock music. The 90's saw the band become a little more aggressive, but they still crafted long winding songs layered with guitar feedback and echoed vocals (they even started to tune their guitars a little more) Then unsurprisingly Sonic Youth shifted their sound again in the 2000's.
2002's Murray Street, 2004's Sonic Nurse, and 2006's Rather Ripped are all records that showed progression and development, but they were comprised of songs that were soft-spoken and more easily digestible. Rather Ripped was the culmination of the pop rebirth of Sonic Youth, featuring songs under 4 minutes in length and strong pop arrangements. It was almost unbelievable that this great noise band was also capable of writing great pop songs. However, a lot of fans were still itching for the strange that Sonic Youth had done so well in the past.
After a three year recording break, the band came back with The Eternal. While not as odd as some of their 80's material, this album definitely marked a transition for the band. It should come as no surprise that this was their first independent release in 20 years. The band felt a sense of freedom after leaving Geffen Records, and they were able to craft a jagged, intricate record. The Eternal is aggressive, unique, and definitely worth an attentive listen. It features pounding drums, dissonant guitar melodies, intrusive vocals, and as always with Sonic Youth a perfect blend of recording effects and organic tones.
The mark of a great band is being able to progress and diverge from the expected path. Sonic Youth has never sold a million records, but they have established themselves as one of the most unique, inspirational, and just plain cool bands of the past 30 years, and for some reason I just don't think they are near done. |
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