Sonic Youth

Editor's Review:

Sonic Youth may be a bit of a misnomer. At the ripe age of 23, the band qualifies as rock ‘n’ roll elderly; however, Sonic Youth’s maturity hasn’t translated into a stagnance. The band has outgrown the impetuous fury of their early years, but as their latest release shows, Sonic Youth still hasn’t lost their potency. Sonic Nurse is the work of a veteran band that now seems fully capable of harnessing their years of passionate experimentation.
Sonic Nurse picks up where 2002’s Murray Street leaves off. The reckless abandon and cacophonous eruptions that marked albums like Dirty have been tempered quite a bit. Blasts of feedback and wild distortion still exist — “Kim Gordon and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream” is a pulsing, noisy rocker that nicely offsets the some of the album’s more sprawling tracks — but instead are unleashed for optimal effect and are not always the focal point. “Dripping Dream” is a moving musical journey, naturally building and subsiding, that features the swirling and supple guitar interplay of Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo and occasional splashes of Sonic Youth’s trademark dissonance; and “I Love You Golden Blue” unfolds slowly, the music manifesting from a shimmering hum, and is laced with Kim Gordon’s breathy vocals.
With three songs that crack the seven-minute mark, Sonic Nurse could never be mistaken for Confusion Is Sex, but a clear line can be drawn from the latter to the former. This is certainly not the same Sonic Youth that etched themselves as musical pioneers throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s; the strange part is, they might actually be better.
– James Barone

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Record Label Geffen Records Released July 2004

Tracks Pattern Recognition Unmade Bed Dripping Dream Kim Gordon and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream Stones Dude Ranch Nurse New Hampshire Paper Cup Exit I Love You Golden Blue Peace Attack