Decades ago, Sonic Youth blew open the stagnant New York "new wave" / art rock / post-punk scene with complex, richly aesthetic albums of serious, though still accessible, music. Twenty years and many musical excursions later, SY returns to the form of their greatest album, the masterpiece Daydream Nation. Well, that may be a stretch, considering I haven't heard more than this track from their latest endeavor (due out June 13), but it certainly sounds like a return to that form. This version of Sonic Youth, like that mid-eighties original version, is deeply intruiging without sacrificing melodicism. Thurston Moore's guitar is again at the forefront (not that it hasn't always been), but with a simplicity lacking in the band's recent jammy albums. The purity of his licks here, though, is a departure from the double-tracked scratchiness even of the SY classics, instead recalling the tone and line of Tom Verlaine and (dare I say it) Jerry Garcia. Sonic Youth: still relevant.
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