Album thread: EVOL
 

I think there isn´t thread about this maybe greatest SY-album (sometimes it is this & sometimes Sister IMO).

Ordered this same time with Dirty, BMR & Sonic Death in 1993 (only vinyl I got before these was Sister). Really loved this immediately, much more than BMR then. Only songs I didn´t like totally at first were In the Kingdom #19, Green Light & Death To Our Friends, but very soon I started to love the whole album! I think this is the first SY-album where they found their real style (First three was kind of searching time). And of course, locked groove in the end is just great!

To me, this is the most melancholy and beautiful SY album. It takes me through from beginning to end on a ride of memory and sound.

I love it so much

Tom Violence - Love how this song builds, and love how it never veers off into a standard chorus.
Shadow of a Doubt - Maybe the best Kim song ever? Maybe the quietest mind fuck of a video ever? I love this song. I fell in love with Kim because of this song.
Star Power - Love hoe this song builds too! Different side of Kim Loved hearing two Kim songs in a row. she knows how to make love...
In The Kingdom #19 - Lee is the MAN! I love and have always loved this crazy freakout of a track. It is the first song I heard ever where i was not barfing because of the spoken word, and made me appreciate the way Lee's words pain images that match the music, and I love when Thurston throws firecrackers. Song about death and killing and love how it fades
Green Light - I have always taken this to be the best love song Sonic Youth ever wrote. When you first find a special someone that feeling of GO GO GO, the green light, is evident.
Death to Our Friends - LOVE this track. Love how the guitars sound like not guitars and the drums and the whole fucking thing,
Secret Girls - This song is deceptively heavy, in it's theme, and I find it awesome when Kim sings things that make me feel she is unloading heavy emotional shit, even if it is in the guise of another, such as in the song Tunic.
Marilyn Moore - If Marilyn Monroe had married Thurston she would be Marilyn Moore...This is a cool , sad, atmospheric song full of washes of sound that I love
Expressway to YR Skull - "We're gonna find the meaning of feeling good
And we're gonna stay there
As long as we think we should"
Nuff said people! I love this fucking song!

Bubblegum - I love how the Sonic Youth always let us off with a laugh, because they understand that their themes and songs can be ponderous and depressing,. and they want us to know IT'S STILL ROCK N ROLL people!!!1 It is like a cordial after a fancy dinner.

My fave SY album is Daydream Nation, but Evol is so choice

EVOL has always been my least favourite of their '80s output. In fact, even Kim herself has gone on record as saying that she doesn't care much for it. It has its moments, however. Thurston and Lee's tracks stand out for me. As I've said before, Kim sounds like she's really not into it on the album's two most promoted tracks, 'Shadow of a Doubt' and 'Starpower'; they sound as if she just woke up and was in a pissy mood or something. 'Tom Violene', 'In The Kingdom #19' and 'Green Light' are the standout tracks for me, and I guess 'Expressway to Your Skull', which reminds me quite a bit of The Doors' 'The End'.

Tom Violence, Star Power, Shadow of a Doubt, and Express Way To Yr Skull are redeeming tracks from this otherwise unnoticeable album. True, this album is a crucial progression away from the early pure no-wave sound towards something more structured and musical BUT it is clearly a work in progress which was better represented on Sister and then Day Dream Nation..

Early Sonic Youth is why I just own Screaming Fields of Sonic Love which is in essence a "best of early 1980s" Sonic Youth album..

great to see how everyone has a different opininon.
im one of those, who loves evol - hence my sig (altho im a bit bored of it by now, i listened to it soooooo much over the years)
never knew that kim didn't really like it. where did she say that?

'There's some songs [on EVOL] that I like, but it's not one of my favourites.' --I Dreamed of Noise (1994), p 90

I agree totally!


Bubblegum -

I am glad this is not in vinyl...

One addition: I have once listened EVOL, Made In Usa & Sister non-stop. It was joyful listening, I think they really fit eachother!

not my fav either. why thay have to wreak the reissue with Bubblegum? hate that shit.

Sister kicks its ass up the stairs then down again twice over. and BMR is better.

i even like the version of Expressway from the 86 peel sessions better than the album. though it doesn't have the extended ambient guitar waves in the outro.

ok, i will say it sounds better on vinyl. same goes for all their 80's releases. it's just a must.

will say it gave me cool images like joy division while listen to this in the dark long ago.

just can't say i loved it then. but it cool.

I don´t think SY & JD has nothing in common (well, you can say SY before EVOL was also very dark music), but yes, EVOL sounds are very near of Unknown Pleasures or Closer. I love really much both bands and also have listened these all records in the dark.

Throw in the Ciccone Youth single and Master=Dik and that's basically everything SY recorded between March '86 and April '87!

Evol is a great album. SY find their familiar groove, but mixed in with the weirdness and noise of BMR and CIS. Its a shame it didnt have the constsitency it deserved. The great tracks are fucking great though.

The atmosphere is quite different in CY and Masterdik as it is in EVOL, Made In Usa & Sister, although I love them too!

still havent listened to Made in USA. Also havent listened to any syrs after 2. I should get around to that as I havent listened to any new SY in a long while. I remember when I first got into them about 10 years ago and there was so much to listen to. Constant amazement. Kinda excited.

I recommend you Made In Usa, SYR3, SYR6, SYR7, SYR9, Demonlover-soundtrack & Kali Yug Express. Also first three John Peel-sessions are amazing!

I think Bubblegum is excellent cover! I like it very much and I wish it was on vinyl also. Evol is great album and for me there is no weak moments at all. Shadow of a Doubt is mind blowing, one of the best Kim songs!

My favorite SY album is Daydream Nation, but the golden era Evol to Goo has no weak songs or albums.

I don't get "Hotwire" and "Bubblegum."

I dislike them, sure, but my point is I don't get them. Why put lightweight covers in the middle of such serious original material?

they did it to fuck with you. SY were never as serious as their critics claimed they were

Honestly I've never understood ANY of Sonic Youth choices of covers but as Rob said, I think that's always kind of been their point.

To me there is no SY Golden era, I love all of their albums! Of course some are greater than others & my favourite albums are made eighties & nineties, but I don´t think their quality of albums has ever get low. I think Eternal is as great as DDN (DDN is really not one of my favourites).

Bubblegum is ok song (quite typical b-side single song of SY), but not fit at all in EVOL. Hotwire...well, it´s not as great as the other songs in album, but somehow I think it belongs into Sister (maybe because I have listened it with the whole other album from the beginning). Of course they could have put Masted-dik instead of it, but I think Hotwire fits into Sister better than Master-dik. It´s a shame the band version of Master-dik is not in the Master-dik-e.p.

I think Bubblegum is originally just bonus in the EVOL-cd, like there are bonus material in the BMR-cd & also Master-dik is in the Sister-cd. EVOL-cd came after vinyl. Those days people in record business seemed to prefer cd to vinyl. It was said that vinyl will disappear wholly. I remember there were record collectors that changed their vinyls to cd. I am glad this prediction never happened.

I agree with mortte

"Bubblegum" was the Starpower b-side and is not on "EVOL" proper, only as a CD bonus track. If anything, it's more of a Ciccone Youth track (recorded with Mike Watt alongside "Into the Groovey").

As for "Hotwire My Heart", who fucking knows. When I finally heard the original version, I realized there's a bass note in the chorus that actually saves the melody. Too bad Kim didn't bother playing it.

EVOL is my favorite.....shit is so boss!


I legit think tht shit is flawless. Starting it off with gtom violence is awesome. The first strum of the guitar just gives off this eerie feeling which stays for the duration of the album...love it to death.

Dig...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0ApgnE2RK3w

do I need to actually say it's my fav Sonic Youth album or do you guys all know that already?

It's a nice 'riff'....

I also love every Sonic Youth album I've heard, all of them are great albums in their own way. Nevertheless, most of my SY favorites (top5 SY albums) are from late eighties and that's why I consider it as golden era. Another great(er) phase in their career is from SYR1 to Sonic Nurse. I still don't mean other phases would suck.

My favorite SY album, without a doubt, it's just demented, almost like made in some twisted parallel universe.

One little detail came to my mind from EVOL. When I got EVOL & Sonic Death same time, I already then noticed there were those "cave shoutings" in both albums: in the begin of Marilyn Moore in EVOL and in the end of Early American in Sonic Death (cave shoutings are also in Flower in Smart Bar-version). Also there is strings loosening part in the begin of I´m insane in BMR & in the begin of She´s not alone in Sonic Death. Maybe these all are just coincides, but on the other hand SY has later used same ideas again (for example part of the loop cat is in the Karen revisited).

Also when I heard first time She´s not alone from the first album (I got Sonic Death before first album) I was quite suprised how soft it was comparing the versions in Sonic Death.