Sonic Youth
The Eternal
(Matador, 2009)

To the extent that any band can, Sonic Youth has earned a sort of carte blanche through their phenomenal longevity, their legacy of innovation, and undeniable career-spanning quality (in relative terms, that is, and only among fans of this genre, which the band themselves basically defined in the ’80s and ’90s; there will always be those for whom any semblance of noise, even when set to rhythm and melody, is the devil’s non-music). For those that have somehow made it this far without being exposed to a single Sonic Youth album and wanted a sort of grab-bag introduction, The Eternal would be the best place to start without suffering the indignity of paying for last year’s Starbucks/SY Grande (ingredients: 15 oz. canned Sonic Youth stretched full of hot air on top of one over-extracted shot of stale roast). The Eternal is their 16th (!) album, and it’s a very comfortable album; no surprises, no missteps, and yet nothing that necessarily displays a groundbreaking band hard at the work of breaking ground. As touted in pre-release press, the songs here cruise through fine examples of nearly all their past stylistic phases, yet without really building upon them. Fortunately (side projects notwithstanding), no Sonic Youth is bad Sonic Youth, so even a collection of stylistic retreads is worth a little excitement.

The new album gets Dirty right off the bat with “Sacred Trickster”, and even Dirty-er as it rumbles ahead with the noise-bluesy call-and-response rocker “Anti-Orgasm.” Later, “Walkin Blue” brings SY’s pop penchant to its sunniest streak yet, strollin’ blithely with Lee Ranaldo towards the intersection of memory lane and Murray Street, where if you like the lead riff and vocal climax of “Blue”, than you’re already revisiting “Karen Revisited.” “Thunderclap (For Bobby Pyn)” is on the more playful slant of the Sonic Youth spectrum, remembering and celebrating the Germs/LA punk scene while channeling the odd swagger of EVOL/“Bubble Gum” into the latter-day RatherRipped/“Sleepin’ Around”-style, big rock heft, with just a dash of Ginsbergian trash-mystic elevation. The Eternal is an album made entirely of such old-and-older hybrids, omitting only the most challenging chapters of Sonic Youth lore (the cold and boring experimental noodling of NYC Ghosts and Flowers, the stark and extended dissonances of Bad Moon Rising, the scattered art-clamor of Confusion Is Sex) in favor of near-tensionless palatability. Perhaps it’s to their credit that Sonic Youth make it all sound just too easy.

Elders of the underground, Sonic Youth has long been considered one of the ultimate, founding, quintessential indie rock bands, despite spending 16 years on Geffen Records, which is about as far from “indie” as it gets. Like underground/mainstream double-agents (or misunderstood artsy divas, depending on how you look at it), they spent a lot of that time bemoaning the trappings of their major label arrangement, and so, when finally the rapture came and Sonic Youth was released back into technical indiedom, one would’ve thought the resultant album would reflect this caged animal finally sprinting to freedom and stretching, if not flailing, its grizzled limbs. Instead, it would appear that either these limbs have atrophied, or the band’s dissatisfaction with life on Geffen added an appreciable tension to their process which is no longer a factor.

In each of their past few albums, Sonic Youth, while wiling away the final days of their lamentable contract, did still engender some quantifiable evolutions. Murray Street, Sonic Nurse, and Rather Ripped were a little mellower, yes, and perhaps only ostensibly “mature,” though they seemed just as genuine and stimulating as any other album. While the younger, more feverish, and barebones urgency of songs like “Schizophrenia” could never be expected to recur, Sonic Youth has never been given to running in place either—until now. At the risk of offering too much credit, it seems possible that whatever pressure the suits were putting on this clan of “indie” royalty was actually a good thing, despite also conditioning them to vector all their more transgressive impulses through a variety of side projects. So, with all their other outlets lined up, and within the lax new label context, maybe Sonic Youth “phoned it in” just a little. Who knows, maybe touring bassist Mark Ibold, formerly of Pavement and Free Kitten, was so excited to join the band on record that he somehow influenced them to go back over everything they’d done before, so he could have a go at it. Either way, it goes to show that even when lobbing one over the plate, they bring some heat, as despite all its familiarity and facility, The Eternal ultimately stands as a strong and diverse album. It might not do much for the legacy, but considering they already built a Starbucks on the “Expressway to Yr Skull”, that kind of thing hardly makes a difference at this point.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]

Tags: Sonic Youth, The Eternal, Matador Records, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon

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