CD Review: Sonic Youth-The Eternal

The first person who says "This is a good album, but not as good as Daydream Nation" or "Their best album’s are behind them", gets a baseball bat to the head. I don’t care if it’s your grandmother, they deserve it for spreading such lies! See, the problem that will affect reviewers and hardcore Sonic Youth fans about this album is the desire to compare it to their old albums. Claims will be made about how it isn’t as noisy or experimental as they want it to be, and thus not as great as it could be. However, it is failed to be seen is the fact that after almost 30 years of challenging and innovating, it is nearly impossible to find a new direction. Sonic Youth realized this and, instead of trying something new just for the sake of it and failing, they embrace limitation and actually find innovation.

This is the first album with all three singers singing at once and it pays off on tracks like "Poison Arrow" were a great sense of paranoia is created or "Anti-Orgasm" were sexual intensity is created by truly rocking music to contrast with the lyrics. And this is a rock album through and through. "Antenna" could be their catchiest song since "Teenage Riot"; the yelps and power of Kim Gordon on opener "Sacred Trickster" are kind of scary, and "Thunderclap for Bobby Pyn", truly, pardon the pun, thunders like no tomorrow. Now, this isn’t the album for everybody. Anyone who have problems with "Rather Ripped" will probably have problems with this one as well due to John Agnello producing both. However, if Sonic Youth simply want to rock out, I have no problem with that, mainly because if people listened, they would hear the Sonic Youth they love in every track, just as loud and noisy as ever.