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Sonic
Youth
If you had to be any band on earth, wouldn’t you be Sonic Youth? Think about it – they’ve spent a quarter-century doing exactly as they please. Each album is treated as an event. If they want to do a bunch of covers of twentieth century modernist compositions, no one calls them pretentious, and, people listen. And if they choose to make a pure pop album – such as Rather Ripped, nobody starts pointing the sell-out finger. Sonic Youth has achieved a unique position in which they can perform and advocate the most esoteric of music out there as well as some of the most conventional – the yin/yang that constitutes everybody’s taste. Who else has this much room to maneuver? No one lets Lemmy sing a standards album though we all know it would be awesome... While folks root for Sonic Youth no matter what they do, the general indie public of course wets its panties at the prospect of a digestible pop album from such a respectable entity. Hence all of the brouhaha leading up to the release of Rather Ripped. The day it came out I heard it blaring out of coffee houses and record stores all over town (I’m still waiting to hear it from the bassy speakers of the pumpin’ vehicles on my street). And, after a few spins, I recognize that, while no one will be surprised by this effort, particularly after the direction of the last couple, I don’t think anyone, from the pop fans to the old noise fans, will be that disappointed - these are solid songs that rock reasonably hard and not one is without at least something interesting about it. Hearing Sonic Youth play some more straightforward material with some standard guitar tuning here and there, some attempts at singy singing, and concise pop structure throughout, still doesn’t feel that strange because they’re a collection of such unique musical and vocal stylists that none of them could become someone else even if it was their desire to do so. And that’s my highest form of praise and something missing from most contemporary music. Another interesting aspect of the more typical forms and cleaner sounds is that they are windows into how the band has grown as musicians and arrangers – particularly in terms of the dual guitar work – which has always been the band’s biggest drawing card and here is reduced to their secret weapon. Each time a song comes off a bit stale or clichéd, they throw in some really crazy dual guitar break that makes me back up and check it out again. In this regard Rather Ripped reminds me of the last Yeah Yeah Yeahs record – in which, the most interesting elements are tucked away in the guitar-based breaks. Think back to the 1970s climate that fathered hip hop – the songs were OK but the breaks ruled and people wanted to hear them over and over again without the rest of the cumbersome beast. Am I the only one that wants to isolate the cool and crazy guitar moments on these new albums like hip hop DJ's did percussion breaks? Maybe yet another genre will emerge from an era when the cool parts play a limited role in the whole. While I didn’t think this’d become one of the Sonic Youth records that I play all the time during the first couple of spins, it’s beginning to settle in - but then again, so did this Kelly Clarkson single that I hear in stores - and I ain't buying that. Whether or not Rather Ripped ends up in our hearts and on our turntables as much as Confusion is Sex, Bad Moon Rising, Evol, Sister, Daydream Nation, and the rest, it’s a perfectly respectable, well-recorded, well-played collection that, while it may not turn you on, contains absolutely nothing that will turn you off.
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