849 Sonic Youth - Goo (1990)

Studio Album - Noise Rock

About the Act:

Sonic Youth were an American Rock band from NY. They started in 1981 as a no wave band (Whatever that means) but became a "noise rock" band. After 15 albums and 30 years they quit in 2011.

About the Album:

This was the 6th album from the band, following up their success with the previous album. It was a commercial and critical success.

My History with this Album:

None

Review:

So here's the thing. I knew that when I started this undertaking, that there would inevitably be stuff I am not so keen on. What I hadn't really thought about was that all of these albums, as a result of my selection method, are precious to somebody. This has led me to try and find the qualities that people like in everything I am listening to, and that has been, broadly speaking, a good thing. It does mean I have been tiptoeing around a bit when I didn't immediately take to something. That's maybe less good, and I need to be more honest with my opinions when they are negative. It's OK. I don't need to love everything.

Whew. Because I didn't like this.

The first time I listened through was this afternoon. I was sat in the sunshine with headphones on, and I fell asleep. It's quite good music for falling asleep to. Because I find it quite dull. It's loud and energetic, I guess, but it's a great big wall of sound most of the time. Of course, that wasn't a good enough listen to do a review on so I have just finished listening again. 

It's called noise rock, and I guess there is good reason for this. The dominant musical theme is loud. And overdriven. That's OK, I don't have a problem with loud. Also raw. It's ragged and discordant, often deliberately so. Layers on layers of noise. The thing about this is that it then becomes this wall of sound. There's this one track, for instance, which is three chords thrashed at over and over and occasionally somebody screams into a microphone in such a distorted way I cannot hear what they are screaming. It's this sort of thing that is the low points of the album, where the only quality is one of abandoned thrashing. There is little skill to it, there is one feel, which is "raw". There is the sheer daring of making music this raw, but that is the only quality I can assign to it. I think this means I am not a fan of "raw" when that is the only discernable attraction to something. So this makes me feel OK about not liking it, because I can see that some people will like something purely for the rawness of it. If you like raw, then you might like this album. I read something in my research about Sonic Youth paving the way for Nirvarna - but here's the thing, there is more to Nirvana than rawness, there is the restrained feeling of the inbetween bits, which makes it a better package, and there is a better feel to the raw thrashy bits than there is here.

Despite what I have already said, this is getting a better mark than my criticism so far would maybe indicate, because there are redeeming features to this album. Some of the songs (notably those with lyrics by Kim Gordon) have some depth and thought to them. I quite like Tunic and Kool Thing for this reason. I like them more knowing what they are about, and her delivery is interesting. Some of the other tracks, when I can make out the words, they are kind of banal, again like the rawness this is probably deliberate, so if you like things that are deliberately banal, you might like some of this.

The other thing I liked were the bits where they actually completely let go and got totally noisy and thoroughly discordant. I respected this more than the featureless repetitive chord-thrashes. 

So, if you love this album, then good for you. If you think that I am uncultured or uneducated or lacking in taste for not liking it - your problem I guess. If you don't know it but like things that are raw, thrashy, feel unproduced (ironically the album was pretty expensive to make and underwent a lot of production), have ironically banal lyrics at times, but more interesting at others, then it's possible you'll love it. I don't feel the need to pretend I did.

5.5/10

However, I respect the fact that the album is called "Goo".

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iYYQwB0oH9FVyVlaOXZdr

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfUV806q_Ri4HNxyi7fpSlFmpNy4mSwoX

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goo_(album)