Search - Sonic Youth :: The Eternal

Frustration and ecstasy

J. watkins | philadelphia | 07/07/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"So I see they finally got someone who could play bass - up from that Sonic Youth tribute band - but as was the case with Pavement, I guess I just have to accept the fact that Sonic Youth are never going to get someone who brings as much to the vocals and lyrics as those boys bring to the guitars. As usual, the vocals and lyrics often make the small hairs tingle with embarrassment. This stuff would have been wretched for a junior high punk band in 1981, but now, it's just mystifying. This band has made the most challenging, the hardest rocking, the most beautiful and ecstatic music by any rock band over the past 25 years. The guitars, especially, are like nothing else in rock. You have to go outside of rock altogether to find music that has this brilliant richness of texture. So why do the lyrics often sound like my ten-year-old son when he's trying to insult one of cartoon characters he's watching? Or like the diary entries of an entitled and angry teenaged girl who really should be reading more and writing less? When I first started listening to the band 30 or so years ago I passed all this off as some species of adolescent snarky, anti-beauty abrasiveness thing - an aesthetic, mind you, that was fresh about a century ago. I assumed they would outgrow it. Over the years it became almost endearing, like the one puzzling but disturbing flaw in some otherwise amazing and beloved friend. Oh well. The music still hunts you, pins you down, and demands that you listen, really listen, and every once in a while, there's something like bliss - too rare in this noisy, stupid world."

Rocking Out

Nathan Beauchamp | Oak Park, IL USA | 06/10/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A return to their bolder, noisier and hard rocking roots, THE ETERNAL is a nice change of direction for SY from their more subdued RATHER RIPPED (a great album in it's own right but not what I've come to love about Sonic Youth since i first discovered them in high school). I listen to SY because I want to hear some hard edged rock and in that department THE ETERNAL delivers.



Standout tracks include "Poison Arrow" which is bombastic, angry, and just plain fun to listen to, "Massage The History," which does just that as the longest and most referential to SY's past psychedelic offerings. Meandering, and a little heavy handed, but epic in its own way. In fact, the whole album seems epic, but isn't upon repeated listens. It's not exactly a case of "Mailing it in," but it certainly isn't among their best albums.



That said, SY still does enough things right that even their lesser work is still highly enjoyable, and better than most of what is being billed as 'rock' these days, Indy or otherwise. SY have always known who and what they are, and THE ETERNAL is more proof of that. A little smug perhaps, a little self indulgent, and a little self referential, but fun none-the-less.



4/5 Stars. For SY fans it is of course an obvious and immediate buy."

Best Rock Album of 2009 So Far..One of SY's All Time Greats

Michael Morales | Los Angeles, CA | 08/05/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The last couple of SY releases have been pretty mellow which is why it is so satisfying to hear them come out agressive with 2 a-- kickers to start of the album in Sacred Trickster and Anti Orgasm.



Anti Orgasm shows the versatility of this band with going from a classic noise bridge into an almost ambient outro..in a way this song encapsulates everything this band has done for the past 4 albums into one song.



Antenna is a beautiful song...an instant SY classic.



10 out of the 12 tracks are excellent. The other two (Poison Arrow, Thunderclap) are very good.



Sonic Youth have become masters of mixing their more experimental material with really catchy musical and vocal hooks making this album very enjoyable on a lot of different levels.



A couple of thoughts..



Kim Gordon has really matured as a vocalist. This is probably her strongest performance ever on record.



Lee Renaldo contributes one of his best songs ever in What We Know as well as the excellent Walking Blue. Why is it that Lee Ranaldo always gets only one or two tracks but those tracks are always the best on the album?



The addition of Mark Ibold on bass really adds some depth to the music. This is the best groove that Sonic Youth has ever layed down on a record.



As a Sonic Youth fan since high school when I first heard Sister count me in the camp who feel that Sonic Youth have gotten better with age. 3 out of their last 4 albums (Murray Street, Rather Ripped , The Eternal) are among the SY albums that I play the most.



Truly remarkeable for a group that is nearing 30 years of making music.







"