There aren't many bands that can claim to have a name that gets more ironic by the day. Then again, Sonic Youth aren't just any band. They have managed to outlast the vast majority of their 1980s indie rock contemporaries and have managed to pull off one of the most difficult feats in rock and roll: aging gracefully.
While there are certainly older bands out there, the Rolling Stones perhaps being the most prominent example, there are few bands that have been as consistently innovative over a twenty five-plus year span as the Youth.
The last few years the indie rock icons have been settling into a comfortable groove making records like Sonic Nurse and Rather Ripped that indulge in the band's pop sensibilities. Whether this was due to the dreaded "m" word, maturation, or the Youth's ever-present desire to experiment with new ideas, these last couple albums have been pretty damn good by most measures.
However, there will always be proponents of the Sonics' hardcore punk inflected days, and with good reason. The span from when the band embraced more traditional song structures to just before the "grunge" craze nearly cast them into mainstream attention is generally considered their golden age. Chaos within a semblance of structure was their M.O., and it's what made them indie rock royalty.
Luckily for fans of the Sonic Youth of 1985-1988, much of The Eternal reflects the work of a period when the band's name wasn't a glaring misnomer. This new album melds direct, abrasive material reminiscent of that on 1987's Sister with the slightly warped pop leanings of their latter years.
The Tracks in Brief: Sonic Youth Throw Three Decades Worth of Musical Spaghetti Against The Wall and See What Sticks
Track one, "Sacred Trickster", is as concise a song as the band has ever written. Clocking in at just over two minutes and starting at full throttle from it's opening moments it shows that these guys aren't just all formless noise, they really know their way around a hard driving riff.
Following "Trickster" is "Anti-Orgasm", a track that starts off just as ferociously as its predecessor with Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore trading shouted lines, though it gradually fades into a hazy instrumental, much like "Pacific Coast Highway" on Sister. The opening two tracks on The Eternal serve to announce that these guys still know how to rock out, and that they do it better than most artists half their age.
There is certainly punk influence in the remainder of the record, but many of the tracks also open up and breathe a little, and this has almost always played to the band's strengths. "Antenna" is a languid ballad that features a hint of guitar static, though ultimately it's a pop song by Sonic Youth's standards, and an excellent one at that.
The closer "Massage The History" is a spaced out throwback to the Washing Machine days, featuring uncharacteristically gentle guitar textures and Kim abandoning her generally hard edged vocal style for an ethereal whisper. Tracks like these ensure that listeners who have embraced the band's move toward more pop oriented tunes won't be disappointed.
Summary: Sonic Youth Bring It All Back Home
Ultimately, The Eternal plays like a career retrospective. Sure, that makes for a record on the long side, but attempting to condense such an extensive body of work into a concise album would be sheer madness. What the album provides is a comprehensive tour through three decades of groundbreaking music. Though some of the sights may not be as riveting as others, depending on each person's taste, this album sees Sonic Youth taking bits and pieces of their past and reassembling them however they see fit. So hop on the bus and take an hour-long journey through one of rock's most interesting catalogues, it's a hell of a ride.
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