[Moshe]

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.

[selkcip]

http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/2962

[nomadicfollower]

I didn't want to start a new thread, but if this hasn't been posted:

http://www.markprindle.com/sonicya.htm#rather

[atari 2600]

Originally Posted by Moshe

http://www.411mania.com/music/album_reviews/41446

I’m going to say the title means ‘mostly drunk’ because that might help you when listening to this.

Release date: June 13th 2006
Label: DGC Records
Recorded: Sear Studio in New York-late 2005 to early 2006
Engineer: TJ Doherty
Mix Engineer: John Agnello

Total Disc Running Time: 51 minutes and 53 seconds

Personnel:

Thurston Moore-guitars and vocals
Lee Ranaldo-guitars, vocals and organ
Kim Gordon-bass, guitar and vocals
Steve Shelley-drums

Sonic Youth has been around since the early eighties. They took a lot of cues from punk and the underground rock scene. This led them to be tossed in with new wave, but they always had more of a darker edge. Then in the early nineties they were poised somewhere between grunge and alternative rock, but really got weird with the experimentation. If anything, Sonic Youth carries on the tradition of musical experimentation and raw grit of The Velvet Underground and other hardcore pre-punk acts.

Their last album was a welcome return to a more accessible mainstream sound, but it was rich in pop culture irony and esoteric postmodernism. This release seems to be less winking and could even be viewed as a toss off as it's the last album needed to fulfill their contract with Geffen Records. Two elements to note is that Jim O'Rourke has left the band and equipment that was stolen from the group in 1999 was returned to them in late 2005 and were used in this recording.

Track Listing

1) Reena

Good opener that is the core of Sonic Youth. It seems simple and disjointed in lyrics and musical arrangement, but it's really multi-layered. The layering of the guitars speaks of how far they've come from their punk roots while the driving beat shows that they are still loyal to it. The track has overall great musicianship with Shelley letting loose on the drums during the bridge.

2) Incinerate

Peppy musicianship hides the dark tale of a man who waits for the firemen to come while he burns his girlfriend. Whether this is literal doesn't really matter. The same layered sound and driving beat as the first is present here, this track might be a hair slower. Surprisingly catchy.

3) Do You Believe in Rapture?

A very interesting track. The sing-song organ and use of white noise is inventive and perfectly matches Moore's hollow vocals in a skewered examination of Christianity. It's definitely not a candidate for single status.

4) Sleepin' Around

It's classic Sonic Youth anti-social commentary to follow a song exploring religion with one touting the glory of promiscuous sex. A little too much reverb is evident on the bridge, but it then drops into some nice driving guitar work.

5) What a Waste

We smartly change things up with Gordon taking lead vocals. Dissidence and white noise is again played with in the background. This song is a weird mish-mash of death metal and Avril Lavigne styled teenie bopper angst. Hell, Gordon's vocal performance and the truer punk sound of this track is what Lavigne wishes she were.

6) Jams Run Free

A disjointed mess, but that's the point. This song demonstrates what happens when you don't tightly reel in the sound they've demonstrated on the other tracks. Sounds and chords mash into each other and not in the best of ways. The lyrics are just placeholders. As the title points out this is just a jam for the group that was probably too free to be included on a professional studio release.

7) Rats

An intriguing, gritty jazz vibe leaks into this track. This is evident in the bass and keyboard work. It's a welcome change up from the previous tracks, but all the songs on the disc are still structured the same way. One of the more coherent lyrically the story is of a woman who ‘rats' out on her boyfriend. Or so I'm guessing.

8) Turqoise Boy

Nice opener as the chords have a circular movement to them and not the straight ahead drive of the other tracks. The vocals and musicianship is also more low key. Three quarters into the disc this track serves as a nice palate cleanser. Just when you think it's a little too wimpy the guitar line beefs up to send the song home. I would probably term this as my favorite track.

9) Lights Out

A sparse, tinny sound and vocals a millions miles away and filled with angst give this an early grunge sound. Dare I use the word ‘filler' for a Sonic Youth album, but this song just laid there for me.

10) The Neutral

A great track with clever lines. It's about how one being banal and ‘neutral' is the "perfect sin." The character being sung about is not a dreamer, entertainer, cowboy, poet, nothing. He's neutral and within that vexing and hard to define, yet sad and worthless at the same time.

11) Pink Steam

The last track bleeds into this one as we get a five minute solid jam that segues from the last song to this one before the vocals kick in. This gives the piece a certain energy. Once again good drum and guitar work are the highlight.

12) Or

A great closing track. It's slow and introspective. It chastises the current music scene with its focus on money and sexuality when most of the artists don't have a clue as to what is going on. Perhaps you can take this as giving Geffen records the finger as they exit.

 

 

The 411: Sonic Youth has really grown as a band from their punk and new wave heyday as this disc demonstrates. While now you could put them under alternative rock, the layered sound that still somehow captures a raw vibe is hard to define. The mixing is not great as the vocals are drowned out on most tracks and the guitars are a little too ever present. The structures of all the songs are similar as are the arrangements that alternate between ‘fast’ and ‘slow.’ In some respects there is the tale-tale signs that they were just doing this album to finish up their contract with Geffen Records, but they certainly don’t phone it in.

Final Score: 7.0

Exactly what I rated it, thank you very much Master Moshe.

[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.

[Jef Mertens]

::: 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.

[Jef Mertens]

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.

[Tokolosh]

Interesting read Jef.
Are those your own interpretations of the songs?

[porkmarras]

Originally Posted by Jef Mertens

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.

The most interesting stuff that i've read about this album so far.

[Jef Mertens]

Originally Posted by Tokolosh

Interesting read Jef.
Are those your own interpretations of the songs?

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?

[Tokolosh]

Ja, ik kan lezen en schrijven.
Ga ik de site ff bekijken.
Bedankt ouwe reus!

[Jef Mertens]

::: 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!

[Moshe]

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

[Moshe]

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

[Moshe]

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

[Moshe]

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."

[Moshe]

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.