Picking up where “Murray Street’s” languid experimentalism left off, Sonic Youth’s somewhat awkwardly named “Sonic Nurse” shows that the band still sounds revitalized, and may have even tapped into a more fruitful creative streak than they did on their previous album. Anyone who has stuck with Sonic Youth this long knows more or less what to expect from them, but the group still has the potential to surprise; one of “Sonic Nurse” biggest surprises is the return of Kim Gordon. She had a relatively limited presence on “NYC Ghosts & Flowers” and “Murray Street”, but she’s back in a big way on this album, contributing four tracks; not coincidentally, Gordon’s songs are among the strongest on the album. “Pattern Recognition” gets “Sonic Nurse” off to a strong start “Your pattern recognition is kind of slow,” Kim Gordon taunts at the outset of Sonic Youth’s 13th studio album. Her quieter songs have just as much impact: “Dude Ranch Nurse” boasts an oddly timeless guitar lick and lyrics (“Let me ride you till you fall/Let’s pretend that there’s nothing at all”) that blur the line between alluring and nihilistic.
Her legendary alt-noise outfit of exactly three decades isn’t the kind of band that immediately announced themselves as my favourite. It was a realization after years of sinking in how often I still listened to every single one of their albums since Steve Shelley became their permanent drummer. I’ve been in love with Sonic Youth for years, first the dynamic contrast between the sweet (soothing Lee and Thurston explorations) and sour (viciously abrasive Kim ones) “A Thousand Leaves” had got my attention even more immediately “Daydream Nation” then along with “Experimental Jet Set” and “Dirty” .
With the rabid “NYC Ghosts & Flowers” and with a more solidified love of Sonic Youth by 2002’s “Murray Street” maybe the 2008 “Battery Park” live recording with the reunited Feelies.
Most of “Sonic Nurse“, including a beautiful, opening number and perhaps another standout, a beautiful but bleak ballad with ghostly vocals that recall Nico at her most fragile. “I Love You Golden Blue” “Sonic Nurse” was possibly their softest, cleanest album, it’s notable how well that material translated to the live setting, but also how memorable it was anyway. If it’s a transcendent album,
Sonic Nurse starts loose and jammy with excursions Thurston Moore’s “Dripping Dream” begins as absurdist, angular rock (although he still has the ability to make phrases like “We’ve been searching for the cream dream wax” sound like the coolest thing ever) and stretches out into a beautiful epic, with the interplay of feedback and guitar lines giving it a comet-tail majesty. “Paper Cup Exit,” the requisite Lee Ranaldo track, has a sharper-edged mix of noise and melody than most of “Sonic Nurse”
“Stones” (“The dead are alright with me,” sings Thurston, or does he mean the Dead?), but less so than the stretcher parts of “Murray Street”. The single “Unmade Bed” and “I Love You Golden Blue,” the other advance track, were definitely their softest, a friendly contrast between Steve’s atypical use of toms in the former and a typically tone-deaf Kim crooning a ballad in the latter. The idea of Geffen cajoling them into attempting a more major-label digestible version of a hushed meditation like “Leaves’ “Hits of Sunshine” is patently ludicrous, but that’s sort of the feel. Even with its ginormous epics, “Karen Revisited” and “Sympathy for the Strawberry,”
“Murray Street” felt like a streamlined version of an assured sound, and I would say that continued with overwhelming success throughout the final three albums SonicYouth ever make. The hooks increasingly poked out of the friendly morass in the second half: Lee’s “they were rising up out of a paper cup,” the sliding-up-the-neck lead guitar that suddenly squirts out of the Krautrock in personal fave “New Hampshire” which could pass for a lost track from “Daydream Nation” — Sonic Youth actually sound younger and more enthusiastic than they have in a few albums.
“Sonic Nurse’s” most memorable tune isn’t delicate at all, though, in fact, it’s a bit insensitive. I’ll call it by its real title: “Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream,” which did end up in a more major-label digestible state upon release. Unlike their winking embrace of Madonna and their downright touching requiem for Karen Carpenter (not to mention their classic Carpenters cover). But the song is so fun and ridiculous, I somewhat doubt Carey, who can afford better mental healthcare than Kim Gordon I love when Kim mentions Eminem and then quasi-raps “Did he bake you and then forsake you / Is innocence gonna still overtake you.” Maybe Mariah would even have a laugh herself at “you’re just being totally perfect” or “maybe you need an emo boy” or “it’s time to take a bubble bath.”
Because of Sonic Youth’s sweeping discography made up more than 20 years there are louder parts than I remembered, particularly the feedback tantrum that finishes off “Dripping Dream” and the squelching wah-wah solos that take over “New Hampshire.” So maybe it’s just another Sonic Youth album, though the trilogy from “Murray Street” through 2006’s even more subdued and hookier. “Rather Ripped” is the most melodic they ever became, with “Sonic Nurse” smack in the middle. When Kim strains to croon “I can’t read your mind” on “Golden Blue,” it goes against all telepathy and nature this quartet’s synergy had developed by 2004 in their own mysterious, alternate-tuned language. So it’s maybe a Thurston phrase I misheard as “Heaven’s junk” and couldn’t find again that sums up “Sonic Nurse“. Or Lee’s inevitably catchy “Paper Cut Exit”: “I don’t mind if you sing a different song / Just as long as you sing, sing along.”
Whatever it may be, this album remains one of the great high watermarks in a career filled with them. thanks to rockandrollglobe.com for the words
The Fat Angel Sings 