Featured Release: Sonic Youth, The Eternal
Matador Records Ole 829-2
Format: CD

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment

The Eternal is Sonic Youth’s return to indie-label status after nearly 20 years with Geffen Records, a subsidiary of the monolithic Universal Music Group. Geffen was generally supportive of the band, reissuing its early small-label discs, including its masterpiece, Daydream Nation (1988), and side projects such as Ciccone Youth and guitarist Thurston Moore’s Psychic Hearts (1995). Being on a major didn’t soften Sonic Youth’s approach any. Goo (1990) and Dirty (1992) leaned in the direction of tighter songwriting, but Daydream Nation was itself a tuneful disc and the band never wavered in its commitment to experimentation and the creative use of noise.

Sonic Youth sounds as energetic as a new, young band on The Eternal, and the disc touches down on a lot of the musical ground the band has traveled since its inception nearly 30 years ago. "Sacred Trickster" is a loud rocker that wouldn’t be out of place on Daydream Nation, and it features a fabulously insolent vocal from Kim Gordon, who asks, "What’s it like to be a girl in a band? I don’t quite understand." Guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo dart around each other in a hail of feedback and colliding notes in "What We Know," and "Calming the Snake" is as brilliantly unnerving as any of the band’s early music. "Poison Arrow" is a tune the Velvets would have happily included on their first album, and "Thunderclap for Bobby Pyn" is a ragged guitar tribute to the little-remembered punk rocker also known as Darby Crash (he was born Jan Paul Beahm).

Not surprisingly, The Eternal is filled with great guitar sounds. The crashing guitars on "Anti-Orgasm" build to a ringing crescendo reminiscent of the climax of the Beatles’ "A Day in the Life" before segueing into a moody double guitar improvisation. "Walkin Blue" has a strong melody that lodges itself in your ear (underneath Sonic Youth’s somewhat anarchic skin lies the heart of a great pop band), and an open, flowing chord progression that Moore and Ranaldo fill with shimmering guitar lines. "Thunderclap for Bobby Pyn" features a reverb- and delay-filled solo from Moore that neatly ties the song’s punk aesthetic together.

Sonic Youth recorded The Eternal at their studio, and the sound is merely good. The bass and drums are recessed and the bottom end lacks clarity -- the kick drum doesn’t have the punch it sometimes needs to help define the song. On the other hand, the guitars ring out cleanly and the vocals are well placed in the soundstage. Overall the album’s sound is energetic and listenable, but I found myself occasionally wishing for more.

The Eternal pays tribute to several departed musicians, including John Fahey (one of his paintings adorns the cover), Johnny Thunders (the CD sleeve includes a photo of him backstage at a Stooges show), and Ron Asheton, to whom the disc is dedicated. Matador, bless them, has also released The Eternal on vinyl.

. . . Joseph Taylor