See, I think the thing about Sonic Youth is that having been around for so long and having moved through a number of different styles, every fan's going to have in mind a few of their recordings that they think sum up the 'real' Sonic Youth.
Dead Flower may be right about "Dirty" being their most accessible album, but not because it represents a peak in their songcraft (which is achieved in their most recent output, IMO), nor because it has a clean, simple sound, but because it fits most readily into an identifiable subset of rock music, the grunge sound that was making us all dress badly in the early nineties. To be honest I'd call it one of their weaker releases, and "Experimental Jet Set..." perhaps the low point of their career. They become a bit too thundering-rock-juggernaut to complement their skewed, layered musical sensibilities on "Dirty", and "Jet Set..." sounds like the hangover from that as they clamber their way back to something more, well, Sonic Youth-y (see what i mean about differing ideas of the 'real' Sonic Youth?).
That said, "100%" was the first SY song I ever heard, and that made me go out and buy "Dirty", and that made me start buying up their back catalogue, so it's not all bad.
I reckon they've been through two periods of pure gold - the first being the late 80s, as their trash-punk-art-bubblegum sound developed and gained more texture, represented by "Sister" (my fave) and "Daydream Nation" (considered by many to be their masterpiece, certainly their most complete work at the time it was released, epic, sprawling stuff). The first two of dead flower's early recommendations come from these albums. "Sister" has this wonderful clattering, paranoid, hard-edged yet somewhat psychedelic feel to it, which is maintained but kind of cleaned and expanded on "Daydream Nation", as if the earlier album is a late night drive around the worst part of town trying to score and not get carjacked, but not being able to fully pay attention to your well-being because you've actually already scored and are in a somewhat fucked-up state. On DN the car has somehow found its way on to the freeway and the paranoia begins to subside but is replaced by something more like alienation, something slower, and wider, that gets worse with every motel or truck stop you pass.
"Goo" keeps the expansiveness of DN, but adds a metallic sheen and more self-consciously art-pop moments. It's a good album and dead flower's recommendations from it are on the money, to which I'd add "Mote". Then that metally sound gets industrialised on 100%... in the late 90s came Washing Machine, which was good but patchy, and paved the way for their current work. I have a real soft spot for this album, the opener, "Becuz", and the last two songs are some of my favourite SY tracks. If there's a problem with their late work it's that the Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon contributions become easier to distinguish, and Kim Gordon's weaknesses as a songwriter are exposed. This is most in evidence on "Washing Machine", "Panty Lies" in particular is almost embarrassing.
For accessibility, though, I'd say go for their most recent albums, "Murray Street" and "Sonic Nurse". They're dense, multi-layered, wonderfully textural, and underpinned by excellent songwriting. Ten years ago I would have spat at the thought of me praising the Yoot for applying improved technical ability, and a more mature sound, to their work, but they haven't gone muso-wank, it's just the sound of their 20+ years of experience being judiciously applied to their original blueprint. Which works for me.
There are a couple of SY threads in this forum, inculding one in which people talk about their favourite SY albums, I think a fair few of the posts are lists but it should still be pretty helpful. |
