705 Sonic Youth - Dirty (1992)

 705 Sonic Youth - Dirty (1992)

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 their seventh studio album. It was produced by the team that produced Nevermind by Nirvana.

My History with this Album:

None

Review:

This journey is fascinating for me, and if you are reading this maybe you are at least mildly interested in this, or maybe just this album, or, I don't know. Anyway, I feel like at times I go all "Meta" and talk about the overall process I am going through, and in particular my constantly evolving thoughts about quality and opinion and listening experiences and so on. I am still, at times, mystified by my own tastes, what I find I enjoy, and what I find I don't. I am aware that it can be context-dependent, which I am trying to work against. I am aware it may be mood-dependent, and I am aware I can be inconsistent at times. And as I self-question, I realise that there must be qualities I appreciate, or don't that are still eluding me.

The last time I reviewed a Sonic Youth album, I gave it 5.5/10. I didn't like it. I liked this one. And the kicker is that I cannot explain why, I'm sorry. Are they that different? No, I don't think so. Maybe some penny has dropped and I "get" what they are doing in a way I didn't before. Maybe the fact that I listened to it wrong helped me.

Let me explain.

I cannot remember where I got the copy of this album from. Some I have bought, some I listen to on Spotify, This one, I have the files. However I had not spotted that there were two discs (the album and a bonus disc). The tracks for each were numbered sequentially (1,2,3... etc) then with the name of the track. This meant I got track 1 from the album, then track 1 from the bonus disc. It was not strict alternation because it was also dependent on the alphabetical order of the names. At about track 19 I started to suspect it was not just one disc. 

I really liked some of the tracks from the bonus disc, in particular the long instrumental soundscape/space rock tracks. They reminded me of some fairly early Pink Floyd tracks, mostly in being long and evolving and spacey, but also in the way they use alternative tunings and discordance. It's possible, that in the context of hearing those, I have understood the discordant elements of the shorter punky sung tracks as well. I would say that I like the album less than I did when I thought they were part of it, but I still enjoyed it.

It really is as far from the polish of Whitney Houston you can imagine - raw, loud, discordant, unusually mixed, acerbic at times, sung out of tune (sometimes very! - in fact one of the bonus tracks featured the same female vocalist, Kim Gordon, double-tracking the vocals, and she is not only out of tune, but out of tune with herself, and out of time, and it's just funny!). Despite thoughts of low quality at times, the drummer is excellent, and the bassist is reasonable, and the two guitarists, this time, don't sound like they are just bad, but sound "experimental". They do use strange sounds, and strange tuning, and strange modifications to the guitars, but this time it somehow just worked for me. Hurrah!

So, as well as the discordant aspects, the other vibe is really kind of Punk. Especially the vocal delivery. It has a feeling of anarchy and rejection of norms that I can deal with, and kind of respect. The words - I found this album more interesting than the previous one. Maybe it was the album about sexual harassment in the workplace that actually won me over. There are songs about decent and thought-provoking things. Although of course, some of them were on the bonus disc. I love the track name "drunken butterfly". 

So, all in all, this album:

7.3/10

But the bonus disc:

7.8/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7oNRvhXwhNCfHEUGER5EhG

Spotify with Bonus Disc: https://open.spotify.com/album/05Zo2yt4reflRVNXFOYxDD

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpSaCumrVbF6ICsYukA6MOcr_Id1qlLT1

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_(Sonic_Youth_album)



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