Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped

Belvedere Jehosophat - Monday, 9 October 2006 - Print Version

Sonic Youth is now Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley. Jim O'Rourke has left the band.

A few weeks before this record was released I visited the Sonic Youth website. Judging by the relative brevity of the songs and by the cover art, which reminded me of Fear's The Record, I assumed, full of hope, not hopefully, that Rather Ripped was going to be a punk record — an honest-to-god punk record.

Rather Ripped, however, is not an honest-to-god punk record: it is an honest-to-god pop record, offering a nice mixture of catchy rock songs and downbeat ballads. This isn't new territory for Sonic Youth of course, as they've always written catchy songs, full of caught, but it's certainly the furthest they've traveled in that particular direction. "Turquoise Boy" and "Pink Steam," the only two songs to manage lengths of over six minutes are the closest the band gets to their more traditional, exploratory jams.

Most of the noise and distortion that makes Sonic Youth Sonic Youth has been stripped back and replaced by by and large clean guitars. That's not to say that Rather Ripped isn't a noisy record, it is; the noise, however, plays more of an ornamental role, icing on cake. This, as a result, leaves the music exposed and the melodies a-twitch, which, obviously, brings me to the guitars. Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo's guitar work has always been beyond reproach, but they've really outdone themselves on this particular record (of course, I'm assuming that Kim played bass).

I suggest you pick this record up; it's not quite Sonic Nurse, but, then...

Also: the Australian version of Rather Ripped comes with the bonus track, "Helen Lundeberg," which sounds so rough as to almost be a demo.

jams run free

As an aside, the set-list from the 26/07/2006 Enmore show, Sydney:
Incinerate
Reena
100%
What a Waste
Eric's Trip
Do You Believe in Rapture?
Sleepin Around
Catholic Block
Turquoise Boy
Rats
Jams Run Free
Pink Steam
Or
--
Lights Out
Brother James
--
The Neutral
Shaking Hell

Belvedere Jehosophat