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http://www.indieworkshop.com/music.php?id=2526
There is nothing I can say that you don't already know about Sonic Youth. There will be writers waxing poetic about their storied career and how much their catalog means to the world of rock and roll at large. But you don't care about that. You know that. All you want to know is whether or not this, their 14th album (is that right? 14?), is any good. To sum it up for you, yes it is. Being down a man (Jim O'Rourke), Rather Ripped seems to be the Sonic Youth of old. Stripped down, tightly wound art/pop/rock songs that could easily elbow their way on to mainstream alternative radio… if such a thing existed nowadays. Songs like the opener "Reena" will be toppling college radio for months, or at least it should. It burns white hot for a 3:47 minute angular rock track. Acting more as a wormhole to 1992 than a simple Sonic Youth song. And it just keeps getting better from there. With Gordon and Moore swapping out vocal duties on just about every song, you feel like you are getting a new look every four minutes. Everything is focused and teeming with pop goodness. With only two songs topping the six-minute mark, you feel like the band has exhausted their experimental and meandering tendencies for the time being and we all win because of it. Not because I don't like the amazing forward-thinking moments this group has produced over the years, but because sometimes you just need a kick ass rock song that plays on an endless loop in your mind, and this album has that in quantifiable amounts. Summer jam of the year? Yeah, so far. This will take you back to when you got your first car and first stumbled across your local college radio station. This is the most aptly titled album so far this year, because it rips rather hard. - Jake Haselman | 2006-06-13 |
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http://www.eonline.com/Reviews/Facts...7,3730,00.html
B- Artist / Band: Sonic Youth Record Label: Geffen Release Date: June 13, 2006 Our Review: There's a story, possibly apocryphal, that archeologists unearthed cave paintings depicting Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon astride a brontosaurus with the words "New music drops this Ice Age!" scrawled nearby. That's probably not true, but it does seem these Youth have been around forever, or at least from when their band name wasn't ironic. That may be why the New York group's latest album feels more overly familiar and Velvet Underground-y than usual, which isn't a good thing for a band with such forward-thinking ideals. That said, Rather Ripped is a tuneful improvement over more recent space-jamming experiments, although the sluggish tempos and abstract melodies of songs like "Turquoise Boy" and "Lights Out" hardly make the case for rediscovering the graying quartet. "Rats," however, encapsulates everything we like about the band, as well as hints that it may be even harder to get rid of. |
http://music.monstersandcritics.com/..._Rather_Ripped
Fifteen albums in, Sonic Youth remains one of the most reliable, uncompromising rock acts of its generation. On the heels of 2002`s delightful but meandering 'Murray Street' and 2004`s uneven 'Sonic Nurse,' 'Rather Ripped' is a concise serving of what the band does best. The opening one-two punch of the Kim Gordon-sung 'Reena' and the propulsive 'Incinerate' returns to the glorious, melodic guitar rock of 'Daydream Nation,' while 'Turquoise Blue' and 'The Neutral,' both voiced by Gordon, expertly blend beauty with bombast. Gordon is also back on bass following the departure of Jim O`Rourke, reasserting herself as a vital cog in the Sonic Youth machine. Even guitarist Lee Ranaldo gets in on the act with the dark, dingy 'Rats,' his best contribution to a SY record in years. |
http://www.gigwise.com/contents.asp?contentid=18353
How the hell do you approach the band that David Toop rightly called “the most influential noise band of all time”? More to the point, how do you approach an album that you feel to be irrelevant and pointless, the sound of a band who have reached maturity with credibility intact and who still show the utmost dedication to new artists and work relentlessly in more avant-garde circles? Everything, in fact, that this reviewer would be slavering over. Sonic Youth have never ‘sold out’ and despite the length of their career (nearly 25 years) have somehow managed to avoid becoming the alt. U2. They also continue to work feverishly within the New York underground and on their own SYR imprint release sometimes stunningly successful, improvised and experimental fare. But here is the first criticism. ‘Rather Ripped’ (and what the hell is that Noel Coward on drugs title about) is by several thousand miles the least experimental album the group have ever made. This separation of the avant-garde into different projects completely disqualifies all the claims that Sonic Youth have moved on and are bored of doing the same old thing because they are still doing the same old thing, just not under the Youth name. And of course, what made Sonic Youth exciting was the combination of avant-garde and garage rock - they were clearly the product of New York punk but visionaries both sonically and lyrically. Whilst this may be predictable to say so, 'Daydream Nation' was their shinning masterpiece, a surreal blissed-out version of their beloved New York City. To these ears, they have never even come close to matching those epochal 4 sides. Of course, it is utterly unfair to criticise Sonic Youth for not grappling with new technology like samplers etc (well, hardly new any more I suppose), and of course Jim O Rourke temporarily brought an interesting darkness and twist to their sound and you would hardly criticise the Rolling Stones for not embracing the laptop (and thank fuck for that we all scream). But, wait a minute. Remember ‘Whitey Album’? Remember those early dub forays on ‘Sonic Youth’? Freshly imprinted due to their recent reissues, the Youth did actually stretch their sound every direction. So, ‘Rather Ripped’ is luscious in production, soft and smooth, you know the sound anyway but it’s now hyper-streamlined. Opening with a Kim vocal, 'Reena' is ultra-melodic and chrome-plated - brilliant in fact. The problem occurs that, 4 tunes in, it just gets bloody boring. Things are briefly elevated by Lee Ranaldo’s ‘Rats’ and the thought occurs as to why he only writes one tune an album these days. And that’s it. In a recent Wire interview, Thurston Moore stated that they don’t feel that they should progress or move on with every release and that fine. Well, that’s fine, and is of course their prerogative. But with so much exciting other music that embraces the future, is there time to listen to a garage pop album, even if it is by the kings of credibility. Not to these ears. |
http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/Entertainm...28994-sun.html
SONIC YOUTH Rather Ripped 3 out of 5 Ripped? How about lean, pared-down, tight and compact. Perennial New York art rockers Sonic Youth are all of these things on their latest studio album Rather Ripped. And it's not only a result of the band once-more appearing in its familiar quartet form, having lost the added guitar services of brief member Jim O'Rourke. It's because there's little extraneous musical meat or fatty feedback on most of the disc's 12 compositions. For the most part, Sonic Youth go the direct route, crafting precision songs that actually closely resemble songs - in the SY way. Of course, that should be good news or bad news depending on what you've come to expect and demand from the band over its 25-year career - whether you consider yourself a citizen of the Daydream Nation or more a Goo afficionado. Taken in the former context, there's very little here to satisfy, besides the bit of noisy nastiness provided by "Rats," when they finally, briefly let loose on "Sleepin' Around" and the entirety of the epic beauty "Pink Steam." And even taken in the latter context, the songs on Rather Ripped are also nowhere near as appealing, with only a handful - Kim Gordon-sung opener "Reena," and her later, lovely dreamer "Turquoise Boy" - really leaving much of a lasting impression. Maybe a slimmed down Sonic Youth is a good thing, but there are very few muscles flexed here to benefit anyone. |
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/.../rather_ripped
4/5 Sonic Youth have always had an eccentric taste for melody, but they've rarely indulged it as blatantly as they do on Rather Ripped. Damn if these grizzled art-punk elders aren't trying to make a pop album a good fifteen years after that would have made any commercial sense. Most of the twelve tunes hover around the four-minute mark, cleanly produced, with a downright sentimental tone. There's hardly any of the Youth's famous feedback, and none of the embarrassing beat-poetry interludes that clogged up their last few albums. Kim Gordon sounds like she might even mean it when she sings, "What a waste/You're so chaste/I can't wait to taste your face." In principle, this is a sketchy idea, since Sonic Youth are better at meandering and atmospherizing than verse-chorus-verse. Concise and catchy has never been their thing. In practice, however, Rather Ripped is an excellent record, one of the strongest to emerge from Sonic Youth's amazing late period. Thurston Moore dominates, singing six of the songs, and it has the same vibe as his 1995 solo gem, Psychic Hearts: The guitars ring out with a sense of emotional urgency, as if he has something incredibly important to say to some girl who's standing incredibly close, and he doesn't have time to diddle around about it. So in highlights like "Incinerate" and "Pink Steam," he gets out of the way and lets his guitar communicate live and direct. Once upon a time, Sonic Youth summed up the loftiest aspirations of Eighties indie rock with Daydream Nation, the 1988 headphone opus where they made fun of art-rock excess and reveled in it at the same time. Daydream Nation sounded like a vision of the future, yet the Youth never dared to follow it up, and neither did anybody else. They marked time in the Nineties with drab, quasi-heavy records, but they've been on a creative roll ever since A Thousand Leaves, in 1998, where they let themselves get spacey again. In the past decade, they've made two masterful albums (Leaves and Murray Street), one real good one (Sonic Nurse), one real bad one (NYC Ghosts and Flowers) and a prolific spew of fans-only experiments. Not too shabby when you consider the core trio -- Moore, Gordon and Lee Ranaldo -- have been sonic since 1981. (Wags still crack that they're not youths anymore -- but that joke is old enough to vote, cowboy.) Rather Ripped continues the winning streak, without sounding all that much like any of the others. The Youth have stripped back down to a quartet, after six years with Jim O'Rourke. (Poor Steve Shelley: back to being the "new guy," after drumming for the band only since 1985.) The premise is the melodic guitar sparkle of Youth classics like "Bull in the Heather," "Wildflower Soul" and "The Diamond Sea." But the songs aren't slow or quiet; the guitars ripple to build tension, as in the moody Pavement-style five-minute jam that opens "Pink Steam." Unfortunately, Ranaldo keeps a low profile here, contributing only the so-so "Rats." The big surprise is Gordon: After cracking MTV with "Kool Thing," she came down with a sad case of rock-star importance and began coasting on her fame with cloying spoken-word showpieces - hence albums like A Thousand Leaves, where the five worst songs are the five she sings. But Rather Rippedhas her first worthwhile tunes in a decade or so. She and Moore trade off breathy love-song vocals, with Gordon sounding great in the six-minute farewell ballad "Turquoise Boy," the hippie fantasy "Jams Run Free" and the oddly touching "The Neutral," where she pleads, "Why won't you tell me what's inside your head?/Why won't you show me your secret bed?" Rather Ripped suggests that if Sonic Youth keep thriving, their glorious Eighties run could end up sounding like a mere prelude to their present-day music. |
http://www.metronews.ca/entertainmen...w.asp?id=16813
Sonic Youth Album: Rather Ripped Label: Geffen/Universal Released: Yesterday **** (out of five) Had this been 20 albums and 25 years ago, this New York post-punk foursome wouldn’t even dream of deliberately sounding this melodic. With their Velvet Underground-fuelled austerity and feedback-laden dischordancies, Sonic Youth helped cement this kind of do-it-yourself template for which the likes of the Pixies, Breeders and, to some degree, the Smashing Pumpkins would follow. As you’re finger-snapping along to Reena, Incinerate, Do You Believe In Rapture? and The Neutral, singer-guitarist Thurston Moore, his bassist-singer wife Kim Gordon, guitarist Lee Ranaldo and drummer Steve Shelley refuse to compromise on any DIY rawness. But Sonic Youth truly let the indie-inspired momentum fly on Sleepin’ Around, closing track Or and the two Gordon-led efforts What A Waste and Jams Run Free, the latter powered by a Pumpkins-a-la-1979-esque rhythm. Wailing feedback is kept to a minimum — until all hell breaks loose on Rats. IAN NATHANSON/METRO TORONTO |
http://www.avclub.com/content/node/49546
Reviewed by Noel Murray June 13th, 2006 Even back in the days of EVOL, what set Sonic Youth apart from their hardcore and post-hardcore peers was an innate sense of sophistication that had them surrounding aggressive noise with lyrical washes of sound. So it isn't too strange to describe Rather Ripped as Sonic Youth's "prettiest" album to date. The loss of multi-instrumentalist Jim O'Rourke—who added color and shape to the jammy Murray Street and Sonic Nurse—hasn't sent the band scrambling back to its old habits of clang and scrape. Instead, the new record opens with "Reena," a tight, minor-key piece of guitar-pop that features an echo-y guitar lick as classic as a Cadillac. Rather Ripped is unmistakably a Sonic Youth album, right down to the snatches of amp-on-fire distortion, the tuneless speak-singing of Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, and an emphasis on guitar texture that includes amplifying each strummed string. But the conventional rock-song structures of "Incinerate," while not unheard of for Sonic Youth, here feel unexpectedly and warmly classicist. The album vibes along through a set of briskly moody songs, then peaks over the last five tracks, starting with the stormy, stretched-out NYC bohemia sketch "Turquoise Boy" (all electric waves and tribal drums) and continuing through the post-deluge meditation "Lights Out," the deceptively chipper "The Neutral," the slow-chugging "Pink Steam," and the muted, semi-acoustic "Or." As with the best Sonic Youth songs, these final five carry the resonance of an intimate practice space, the pent-up frustrations of the day, and the beautiful fragility of a fleeting moment. It's instant art: personal and transitory. A.V. Club Rating: A- |
http://www2.townonline.com/chelmsfor...ticleid=515562
Forever Young: Sonic Youth still sounds fresh By John Ciampa/ Staff Writer Thursday, June 15, 2006 Who would of thought in 1992 that one of the primary influences on the then burgeoning grunge scene would end up outlasting nearly every band associated with that movement? Yet here we are in 2006 - more than a decade after Kurt Cobain's death, Pearl Jam's fall from the alternative throne and the break-ups of Alice in Chains and Soundgarden - fortunate enough to have a new Sonic Youth recording hitting stores this week. But as the band's name implies, Sonic Youth has seemingly found its way to the fountain of musical relevance, staying fresh and ahead of the curve at a moment in pop music when programmers are so busy looking for the next big thing it's a wonder most bands make it to a second album.  document.write(' "Rather Ripped," the group's 21st album in 25 years (a remarkable feat for a band of Sonic Youth's ilk) finds them scaling back to a four-person lineup, with original members/guitarists Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo, along with drummer Steve Shelley (who joined the band in the late-80s), returning to a more bare-bones structure, while still breaking new musical and lyrical ground. At times, "Rather Ripped," is Sonic Youth's most conventional record to date, filled with the group's customary, multi-layered guitar sound and fluid rhythms, yet still allows for plenty of new wrinkles in the band's approach. Sonic Youth draws from two fruitful, yet distinct, sources: there's the band's alternative and art roots sewn in the post-punk atmosphere of New York City when it formed; and then there's its more free-form, compositional side, forged in the mid-90s when the band began touring with the likes of Phish and playing jam-band festivals. "Rather Ripped," comes across as an interesting compromise between the two. In "Do You Believe in Rapture?" Moore goads the listener with trance-like vocals sung over a simple, repeated chord structure that recalls the more pastoral recordings of PJ Harvey. Likewise, Gordon's "Reena" matches the intensity of punk with the kind of wide washes of strings and looping rhythms found on the band's landmark "Daydream Nation," where it broke conventions and stretched what sounded like two-minute punk songs into seven-minute epics. The overall sound of "Ripped" is decidedly subdued, but there's a welcome edginess to songs such as "Or," "Lights Out" and, especially, "Pink Steam," which begins with an elongated intro that wraps the listener into a world of dreamlike dissonance. These tracks and others find the band charting new territory even if it's through the slightest of motions; the juxtaposition of lighter sounds and darkened music, or a gentile lyrical passage sung over restless beats. "Pink Steam" is a fine example, and also serves as a showcase for some of Moore's most personal, touching lyrics to date, dealing with a topic he's managed to stay clear of for most of the last 10 years - his marriage and life as family man But with lyrics so tender, it's hard not get caught up in the well-crafted maturity of lines like "Don't you know you need no other/I'm the man who loves you mother/Open up your arms to me girl/Let me feel your wild heart beat girl/Surrender pink steam." It's an emotional nakedness that sounds daring even for a man and a band celebrating a quarter-century of collaborative growth. John Ciampa can be reached at jciampa@cnc.com |
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/f...lz1w15sonic.ht
25 years into the relationship, Sonic Youth gives fans a lovely present, 'Rather Ripped' By David L. Coddon UNION-TRIBUNE ASSOCIATE NIGHT&DAY EDITOR June 15, 2006 Someday, in the Great Garage in the Sky, two bands in particular will look down from the heavens on the scorched earth they left behind. One of them would be Dinosaur Jr., ear-splitters extraordinaire. The other – Sonic Youth, the aural equivalent of a rock 'n' roll experiment gone bravely awry. This year marks 25 years of Sonic Youth, founded in New York by guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo. As a silver anniversary present, the avant-gardists (the band's current lineup also includes longtime bassist Kim Gordon and drummer Steve Shelley) give us one of their best albums ever – and who saw this coming? – the quite remarkable “Rather Ripped.” Among the dozen tunes are the incendiary Thurston Moore rocker “Incinerate,” destined to become a Sonic Youth classic, and the Ranaldo-spun “Rats,” a gritty, haunting opus of piquant, scratchy guitar and terrifying lyrics: Shine a light into your soul / city streets so freezing cold / city shadows mark the route / when they let the rats out. “Turquoise Boy,” another Moore composition, echoes 1960s psychedelia, as a supple, guitar-driven ballad morphs into archetypical Sonic Youth distortion, and back again. Its lyrics would make Donovan weep: Turquoise boy the sky is calling me / sweet isolation in the sun / You are a soldier in a sad charade / how can you lose what's never found? Throughout “Rather Ripped,” Moore and Ranaldo remind us what skillful and nuanced guitarists they have been for a quarter-century. Everyone from Slash to Kurt Cobain can be “heard” in their playing, and there's no question about who came first. Not to be outdone, as usual, Gordon fuels urgency and propulsion on bass, in particular on “What a Waste,” which she complements with a snarling vocal. You're so chaste / I can't wait / To taste your face, she sneers in a kind of twisted haiku. She could be mistaken for PJ Harvey on the opening track, “Reena,” and, come to think of it, wouldn't that pair, if they ever got together, shake up the Rock and Roll Hall of Famed ideal of “Women in Rock”? Shaking up the conventions of rock – and, yes, this music born of rebellion does have its conventions – has been Sonic Youth's mission for 25 years. So has ripping 'em up – and not just rather ripped, either. |
Wow..
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http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150235412303&call_pag eid=970599119419
Sonic Youth Rather Ripped (Geffen/Universal)  </IMG></IMG></IMG></IMG>Things usually go one of two ways when a singular band starts simply sounding like itself: it can either keep sleepwalking, or it can continue to amaze with the unexplored depths of its vision. The unthinkable appeared to be catching up with Sonic Youth in recent years, the fan-acknowledged doldrums of 2000's NYC Ghosts and Flowers having found only mild redemption in the restrained, sorta-programmatic jammery of Murray Street and Sonic Nurse. Yet on Rather Ripped, the living New York legends make a "conventional" record that only sounds conventional because Sonic Youth has spent 25 years accustoming us to its alien tunings, slanted melodies and miasmic clouds of feedback. By condensing all those years of bloody-minded sprawl and squall into tight, lingering, three-minute songs without sacrificing the mercurial structures, subversive lyrical bent and reverence for noise that identify Sonic Youth as Sonic Youth, it stands with the quartet's finest work. It also acknowledges the band's greatest triumph in bending the pop form to accommodate avant-garde formlessness in much the same way as fellow N.Y. iconoclasts the Velvet Underground (checked nicely with a bit of "Sunday Morning" sparkle on "Do You Believe In Rapture?") and Television (whose twin-guitar glissandros are echoed all over this disc). Ripped scene-stealer Kim Gordon permits herself to sing more prettily than ever on "Turquoise Boy" and "The Neutral," while a few veiled references to romantic hurdles on her "What A Waste" and hubby Thurston Moore's "Sleeping Around" are as close as indie-rock's uber-couple have ever come to humanizing their relationship in song. Ben Rayner |
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Here's my review.
What if one day you wake up and you hear on the news that Thurston Moore is dead? Rating: 1/10. |
This album is so Thurston POORE, it makes me want to take it out of the Thurston DRAWERE and throw it on the Thurston FLOORE. Then I might even grab the Thurston BORE and kick it out the Thurston DOORE and go down to the Thurston SHORE to pick up a Thurston WHORE. Let me tell you what you have in Thurston STORE if you decide that Dirty and Goodbye 20th Century CDs aren't sufficiently rotten to the Thurston CORE and you need some Thurston MORE
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from volcanic tongue:
Sonic Youth Rather Ripped Goofin GOO-011 LP £10.99 Limited vinyl edition of the new Sonic Youth LP. Heard a lotta talk about how this was a pretty straight-ahead rock effort from the quartet line-up but theyve still managed to squoze a ton of omni-directional lead-guitar squall in here. Indeed, the combination of the ginchy, new wave production sound and the blats of free-string give it the feel of the Lloyd/Verlaine tag-team plays the songs of Blondie and The Modern Lovers. Kims songs are a particular highlight here, with some classic dream-pop hooks, while Thurstons phrasing is so Boston pop he could almost be Jonathan Richman. Kind of a glitzy atmosphere that for some reason reminds me of the second Suicide album, maybe something Rick Ocasek in the production? Whatever, its another good one and the LP looks a hell of a lot better than the CD. So do the right thing. |
This is the UK's Kerrang Magazine Review:
Sonic Youth Rather Ripped (Geffen) KKKK Original NY Art-Rockers Return in Low-Key Style Sonic Youth have been going for 25 colourful years now, never once standing still or giving much thought to commercial sucess, yet galvanising the entire US underground into action. But they are maturing with age - though in the best possible way, thankfully. The ongoing evolution and sense of dignity is evident in this clean (as opposed to previously mucky efforts) collection of smart guitar songs that are low on trademark-feedback tsunamis of old but high on skewed pop melodies of a Fugazi bent and plaintive vocals shared by an on-form Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon. Both are old enough to be grandparents. Both are still unnaturally cool. Go figure, as they say. For Fans Of: Dinosaur Jr, Yeah Yeah Yeahs Download: 'Incinerate' Ben Myers |
The Onion's AV Club reviews Rather Ripped.
http://www.avclub.com/content/node/49502 Reviewed by Noel Murray June 13th, 2006 Even back in the days of EVOL, what set Sonic Youth apart from their hardcore and post-hardcore peers was an innate sense of sophistication that had them surrounding aggressive noise with lyrical washes of sound. So it isn't too strange to describe Rather Ripped as Sonic Youth's "prettiest" album to date. The loss of multi-instrumentalist Jim O'Rourke—who added color and shape to the jammy Murray Street and Sonic Nurse—hasn't sent the band scrambling back to its old habits of clang and scrape. Instead, the new record opens with "Reena," a tight, minor-key piece of guitar-pop that features an echo-y guitar lick as classic as a Cadillac. Rather Ripped is unmistakably a Sonic Youth album, right down to the snatches of amp-on-fire distortion, the tuneless speak-singing of Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, and an emphasis on guitar texture that includes amplifying each strummed string. But the conventional rock-song structures of "Incinerate," while not unheard of for Sonic Youth, here feel unexpectedly and warmly classicist. The album vibes along through a set of briskly moody songs, then peaks over the last five tracks, starting with the stormy, stretched-out NYC bohemia sketch "Turquoise Boy" (all electric waves and tribal drums) and continuing through the post-deluge meditation "Lights Out," the deceptively chipper "The Neutral," the slow-chugging "Pink Steam," and the muted, semi-acoustic "Or." As with the best Sonic Youth songs, these final five carry the resonance of an intimate practice space, the pent-up frustrations of the day, and the beautiful fragility of a fleeting moment. It's instant art: personal and transitory. A.V. Club Rating: A- |
Somethingawful.com's Dr. David Thorpe reviews Rather Ripped for his 'Your band sucks' editorial.
http://www.somethingawful.com/index.php?a=3888 Sonic Youth – Rather Ripped Considering that at least four of the songs on this album sound exactly the same, you’ll feel “rather ripped” off when you buy this album! Ho ho! Somebody sell me to Jay Leno. |
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0060623l2.html
Sonic Youth "Rather Ripped" By PHILIP BRASOR Ever since Kim Gordon sang about her friend Goo, she has epitomized what's great about Sonic Youth as a rock band. Forget the special tunings and the blasts of feedback-fortified guitar catharsis and Steve Shelley's rigorous time-keeping, all of which are present on their new album and as excellent as ever. What has maintained SY's distinctiveness since it became a song-and-jam band on "Daydream Nation" is Kim's adolescent flippancy, the way she snarls a throwaway line like "What a waste/you're so chaste." Since Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo aren't great singers either, it's more than just her artless resolve that makes Kim's five vocal performances stand out on "Rather Ripped," probably the most conventional album they've ever made. She'll test a lyric's truth with sarcasm, sexual innuendo, playfulness, or whatever it takes to sell the idea. Since so many of the songs address love directly, it's natural to assume that Thurston and Kim, who are married, have each other in mind when they sing them. Kim's seem more honest, or, at least, less abstract. It's one way to act your age, even if you're a rock kid at heart. |
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I didn't want to start a new thread, but if this hasn't been posted:
http://www.markprindle.com/sonicya.htm#rather |
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Exactly what I rated it, thank you very much Master Moshe. |
time magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...207824,00.html SONIC YOUTH RATHER RIPPED For almost three decades, no one has exuded so much cool and produced so few melodies as Sonic Youth. It's not that these New Yorkers are incapable--they're just obstreperous, which makes the arrival of their first great rock album such a shock. They haven't rid themselves of their beloved guitar fuzz, but on songs like Reena and the sublime Jams Runs Free, the noise takes a backseat to focused songcraft and real, live hummable riffs. To top it off, Kim Gordon has emerged from her decade-long Nico-soundalike contest and is enunciating again. Calling it a career best would only make them angry, so let's just say it's really good. |
::: Humo magazine (Belgium) :::
(translated to the best of my knowledge) Sonic Youth 'Rather Ripped' (2/5 stars) Could you please pass on the cape of love? So we can cover 1/3 of Rather Ripped with it, the new Sonic Youth. Lights Out seems like a throwaway from Psychic Hearts, the otherwise nice solo-cd by Thurston Moore; Jams Run Free seems like a weak parody of the old SY-single Bull In The Heather; the superficial odd Or would rather belong on a cd from Sonic Old Bores; and Do You Believe In Rapture is a somewhat easy assault on religiously motivated warfare. (Burning eyes seek Jesus comin' / Jesus comes to pave the way). Erase it with a drenched sponge. And it all started so beautifully: with a fresh guitarfidlle on which Kim Gordon drapes a nicely sung 'You keep me coming home again'. Reena is a perfect popsong and an equally perfect love statement: despite a heavy fascination for a friend Kim Gordon says (read sings) about always returning back to her Thurston. Immediately we knew why for 25 years it's been a nice home coming to a typical Sonic Youth-sound. And it's not just the opening song in which she has a good voice. In Turquoise Boy, a song wrenched in psychedelics, she wanders off in the sweet two-sided heart of love. The Neutral is way more down to earth (t's a perfect sin/Close your eyes and loose the rest) and the ritmic beating What a Waste is even straight out horny: What a Waste/You're so chaste/I can't wait/To taste your face. |
Love also keeps the rest of the band captive. Rats, a typical Lee Ranaldo composition, places a link between the virmin of New York and a love who's unfaithfull (no, they don't have the wiskers in common). The dangers of losing yourself in love is also touched upon by Thurston Moore: the fantastic Incinerate, which has the best lyrics on the album, at once a report of a high conflicting passion and a jump into the soul of a suicide terrorist: 'You dosed my soul with gasoline/You flicked a match into my brain. Just for a second the guitars roar like jet engines.
Superficial sex is due in Sleepin Around: while the noise evolves in the background, Thurston tickles the bourgeois' moral (Sleepin around all over town/What will the neighbours say) It's no coincidence that Mr and Mss Moore moved from New York to Massachusetts recently. The longest song on the record, the with threath impregnated Pink Steam (named after the erotic classic by Dodie Bellamy), is lovely old skool Sonic Youth, be it without the howling feedback or heavy rock. The whole cd does also sound much cleaner and more straight then can be expected from Sonic Youth. Not untill after a few listenings can you hear the weid elements, effects and twisted changes hidden in the sound, still all colored within the lines of the conventional. Not doing at what your best at is a sin. The worst fans are dissapointed fans. Just ask columbian defender Andres Escobar, who scored a goal in own net and was shot ten days later in his father country. We'll just shoot up in anger and keep it at two stars. |
Interesting read Jef.
Are those your own interpretations of the songs? |
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No these are translated from Humo magazine. from Dutch. I thought it was an interesting read, these writers have a huge baggage when it comes to music. Mag exists since 1984?! I dunnow some like that. I do not agree with these writings but was curious about their opinion. It's one of the most intriguing mainstream magazines in Belgium. They've had provocative covers that upset a lot of people. http://www.humo.be Tokolosh I believe you read Dutch - niet waar? |
Ja, ik kan lezen en schrijven.
Ga ik de site ff bekijken. Bedankt ouwe reus! ;) |
::: Aquarius Records :::
Rather Ripped is a rather right-on title for this new SY album. Stripped down and back to basics, the core group of SY is back (Jim O'Rourke is out) and have made a totally great rock record. Poppy and catchy, but without losing their knack for soundscapery skree. Kim Gordon sounds more present and commanding then she has in a while (and a lot less whiney and singsongy), and Thurston is at his dreamiest and most laidback. This is the first SY record in ages to immediately seep into your soul after only a few listens. The great thing about SY is how they truly are A BAND. The sum of their parts comes together to create something WAY more fully realized then any of them could make on their own. Lee Ranaldo sings his song with so much intensity and his guitar sound remains totally, unmistakably his. Steve Shelley continues to keep the beat simple and solid, letting the rest of the band stray and wander. And of course Kim & Thurston are right up front effortlessly demonstrating that it's totally possible to age with dignity and passion while continuing to seriously rock. While it seems like some folks stopped listening to SY at some point in the past, "their last good record" (Daydream Nation, Dirty, etc.), the truth is, that unlike almost any other band around, Sonic Youth have been making really great records for the last quarter-century (totally check out recent under appreciated outings like Murray Street and Sonic Nurse). There is an ethos and undying spirit in their songs that continues to thrive and grow, change and mature, and it still gives us goose-bumps and has us throwing our fists into the air! |
http://www.collegiatetimes.com/news/...006-06-28.html
Since their early days as NYC’s premier experimental noisemakers, Sonic Youth has epitomized what might be called mainstream avant-garde. They’ve always had a solid place in the public consciousness, with a multi-decade career and cumulative album sales that could make even the frothiest pop artist blush. Still, that hasn’t stopped them from taking an already weird sound and turning it even weirder over the years. Sonic Youth has at least managed to keep the "sonic" part of their name consistently surprising and relevant, which makes their latest release, "Rather Ripped," something of a shocker. The odd part is, it’s not shocking because it’s so challenging, but rather because it’s surprisingly listenable. Yes folks, Sonic Youth has finally made their pop album. Which is not to say that Sonic Youth is going to be making Jessica Simpson nervous any time soon. Any record by Sonic Youth, even a pop record, is going to be chock full of ambient flourishes, strange tunings, unusual song construction and general weirdness, and "Rather Ripped" will leave longtime fans at least partially satisfied with their quota of this sort of thing. What they won’t expect, however, are the curiously clean and catchy guitar licks of such tunes as "Reena" and "Incinerate." The band has long flirted with catchy hooks and memorable tunes — after all, no band gets really famous without them — but in the past they’ve conspicuously buried them beneath sloshing waves of electronic noise and bizarre instrumentation, as if to distract the listener from the shameful secret that all bands, even Sonic Youth, must rely at some level on music. Here, probably for the first time in their career, they fully embrace the possibility that songwriting can be a legitimate star of the show, and the experimental flourishes can be a supporting player. And yeah, the band seems to be having a surprisingly fun time playing in this sandbox. Still, Sonic Youth is a tragically late arrival on this scene. Sure, it’s nice to hear vocalists Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore cut loose a bit on driving mid-tempo rockers like "What a Waste" or "Sleepin’ Around" (respectively). They’re both fine tunes, filled with tense electronics and hidden lyrical menace. Still, they’re nothing you haven’t heard before, which to a large extent is Sonic Youth’s main selling point. Maybe that’s the point, though. Sonic Youth, like that other giant of the avant-garde pop, Radiohead, has been all the way to the edge, and now they’re drawing back a bit. Perhaps this record is Sonic Youth, finding their mastery of technique now established, returning to using the tools for the sake of pure expression rather than using them for partially experimental purposes. The resulting musical concoction is, at times, absolutely sublime, as in the curiously gentle religious meditation, "Do You Believe in Rapture," which compares favorably with the Velvet Underground at its most potent: a schizophrenic mix of gentle warbling tune and brutal lyricism. The aforementioned "Sleepin’ Around" is also a great addition to Sonic Youth’s catalogue, filled to the brim with loathing and grime, all just barely suppressed in the vocals and muscular instrumentation. Later in the album, lurking instrumental arrangement bring tracks like "Pink Steam" (which waits until around the five minute mark to bring in vocals) to sinister life. Even somewhat forgettable tracks like "Incinerate" are, as the album title implies, lithe and trim little nuggets of twitching, propulsive cool. Although the lyrics sometimes disappoint, for the most part this album demonstrates a high level of professionalism on just about every front. In total, "Rather Ripped" could be an interesting footnote to a career of a focused, purpose-driven avant-garde band or a pleasing grace note prelude to a new chapter in the career of said band. Sonic Youth has long ago shown an innate ability to defy predictions as to what they will do next, so this reviewer will not attempt one here. Suffice to say, if "Rather Ripped" is any indication, Sonic Youth has channeled the wisdom a long career of experimentation brings into deft and flawlessly toned musical synthesis. They may no longer be youths, but their rate of musical growth may well turn out to be supersonic. 5/5 |
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/sco...71567_0_21_0_C
Hear Now By Mike Moody The Brownsville Herald SONIC YOUTH – ‘RATHER RIPPED’ (Geffen) — July 7,2006 — Twenty-four years into its influential career, Sonic Youth sounds more classic than complacent on album number 21. New York’s archetypal alternative rock band gracefully reconciles the experimental noise sound of its past with a new fondness for pop and melody on “Rather Ripped.” The opener “Reena” sounds inviting and cheery with vocalist/bassist Kim Gordon’s distinctive vocal huff riding a pair of dueling, bouncing electric guitars. “Incinerate” sounds even more sincere and awake. Singer/guitarist Thurston Moore is in full crooner mode here, a posture he probably picked up while covering the Carpenter’s “Superstar” a few years back. The track is smooth but never slight. Lyrics like “The firefighters hold me down/I don’t care, I’ll burn anyhow” revisit the band’s teen angst bluster. Like most of the more tender tracks on “Rather Ripped,” it makes room for some thrilling guitar spiraling by Moore and Lee Ranaldo. “Jams Run Free” is anything but a boring jam song. It’s one of the bands best, most sobering tracks. It’s an organic, mid-tempo ballad that sounds smart and sunny, and not in that Coldplay way. The song makes great use of the tension between the band’s new guitar pop smarts and love of loud, guttural street noise. Perhaps, like the Velvet Underground in the late ‘70s, Sonic Youth’s more accessible — but no less ambitious or urgent — sound is rooted in a need to be remembered by the masses. Like 2004’s “Sonic Nurse,” “Rather Ripped” is sparky, more melodic and tender than fringe delights like 2000’s “NYC Ghosts and Flowers.” The material hasn’t gotten softer; it’s just gotten warmer. Posted on Jul 07, 06 | 12:01 am |
http://www.2theadvocate.com/entertai...c/3288421.html
Sonic Youth RATHER RIPPED New York noise-rock pioneers Sonic Youth return with Rather Ripped. Calling the hugely influential co-ed band’s new record noise, however, doesn’t do it justice. This frequently melodic collection of songs is among the band’s strongest and most accessible discs. As usual, guitarist Thurston Moore and bassist Kim Gordon sing most of the band’s communally composed songs. Husky-toned Gordon opens the 12-song set with “Reena,” a shimmering sample of Sonic Youth as a pop band. Not that the band has abandoned its noise origins. “Jams Run Free,” another of the Gordon-sung songs, sounds as if it goes space tripping when Moore and Lee Renaldo’s guitars weave above Steve Shelley’s locomotive drums. Two songs — the Renaldo-sung “Rats,” featuring an especially propulsive rhythm section from Gordon and Shelley, and “Turquoise Boy,” featuring lyrical lead guitar and cascading guitar arpeggios — summon audio memories of that adventurous, genre-expanding ’60s band, Spirit. Another great thing about Rather Ripped is its warmth. There’s no info in the CD booklet about recording equipment or instruments, but an inside photo shows Gordon holding a classic Gibson Firebird bass. The disc is so beautifully recorded, it must have been made using analog tape, tube amps, the whole retro-audio enchilada. John Wirt |
http://www.glidemagazine.com/2/reviews1357.html
Sonic Youth Rather Ripped Shane Handler Friday, July 07, 2006 After a 25 year career producing 20 albums of splendid white noise, Sonic Youth has nothing left to prove. Though somehow their 21st album, Rather Ripped, keeps us wondering if the band’s best years are happening right now. Showcasing their tightest arrangements to date, according to Thurston Moore, Rather Ripped is "a super song record" containing "rockers and ballads," and you’d have to agree. In their attempt at “noise free,” Kim Gordon sounds more melodic than ever on the opener “Reena. ” Alongside her, that interwoven guitar cat and mouse game between Moore and Lee Renaldo is alive and well, as “Incinerate” keys off the tension and buildup guitar workouts of 2004’s Sonic Nurse. And behind it all, with the absence of sometime band member Jim O’Rouke, SY’s sound is stripped to a solid core that stands as a blueprint for any modern day hipster. No new ground is really broken with highlights “Do You Believe in Rapture?” and “Rats,” but its too late in the game for a concept album or radical reinvention anyway. Here’s to another quarter decade of the same recipe, even if its "rockers and ballads." |
http://onmilwaukee.com/music/articles/ratherripped.html
05:21 a.m. Aug. 17, 2006 Sonic Youth is still in touch with its inner youth by Bill Zaferos It's hard to believe that Sonic Youth has been making music for three decades. They've out-lived all the labels -- alternative, grunge, post-punk, New Wave, No Wave, permanent wave, whatever -- and what they created was a sound distinctly all their own. Sonic Wave, maybe? As a band they haven't evolved so much as they've advanced. Their sound was always sort of based on power chords, distortion, feedback and, as time went on, songs that meandered through a thicket of guitar fuzz for several minutes before returning to their original themes. Their 2004 opus, "Murray Street," showed how they could put the fuzz at 11 and still make a coherent, highly listenable (if you're willing to forgive the demon-shriek feedback and extreme length of "Karen Revisited") album. For the most part, you're not going to dance to Sonic Youth, but you're going to be riveted even by the most cacophonous guitar duels between guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo. What is remarkable, though, is that with their new album, "Rather Ripped," Sonic Youth has put together an album that sounds as fresh as when founding members Moore, Ranaldo and bassist Kim all really were youths. "Rather Ripped" is a testament to how a really good band can age gracefully, maintaining its unique sound and relevance even as time and musical styles march on. The sound is roughly the same -- heavy guitars, almost incidental lyrics and driving rhythms -- but with "Rather Ripped" the sound is more of a controlled burn than an all-out wildfire. They've pared the length of the songs, and in the process they've created a highly listenable album. Only two songs on "Rather Ripped" - the lovely, almost ethereal "Turquoise Boy" and the harmonic, ominous "Pink Stream," whose lyrics don't start until five minutes in -- are longer than six minutes. The rest are under four or five minutes -- perfect for radio play or mix discs. Even "Jams Run Free," which you might think would be a time-eating free jam, clocks in at less than four minutes (although it includes some thin, barely tolerable and barely on-key vocals by someone who sounds like Gordon). Not that the band has sold out to commercialism. Listen to the roaring crescendo of "Turquoise Boy" and you'll know it's the same old Sonic Youth. And while it's a cliché to refer to albums like this as "accessible," it seems they're reaching out to a new audience even as they go back to the sound of their breakthrough 1988 album "Daydream Nation." Their stuff still sounds edgy enough to make it seem as if they're daring radio program directors to give them airplay. "Rather Ripped" deserves mainstream attention, even though cutting edge bands risk losing their hip credentials when their stuff is playing on commercial radio. And "Rather Ripped" shows Sonic Youth is still cutting edge, which says as much about their creative staying power as it does about the current state of music. At times, on numbers like "What a Waste," Sonic Youth's "Rather Ripped" incarnation sounds like a deranged Stereolab. At others, such as with the hooky openers, "Reena," and "Incinerate," they sound as if they're going for their first hit single on the pop charts. Yet there's still a sense of noisy danger that makes them sound like the offspring of feedback king and sometime patron Neil Young had to lock in the attic. Still, while "Rather Ripped" doesn't really break any new ground for the band, it proves that they can still sound as new as they did in the 1980s, and certainly are a far cry from the distilled, overly polished corporate punk being foisted on this generation of America's youth. But that doesn't mean they've gone mainstream. Rather, it just shows that they have not lost touch with their inner youth. |
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