Sonic Youth

Album reviews

Sonic Nurse
Geffen (2004)
Sonic Nurse is a far cry from the heated period in the mid- to late '80s, but so what? Perhaps the vein they've been mining is out of gold, but there are plenty of other precious metals.

Murray Street
DGC (2002)
Murray Street turns down the noise and sharpens the hooks, resulting in the band's best record since Washing Machine.

NYC Ghosts & Flowers
Interscope (2000)
There may indeed exist a comfortable middle ground for today's Sonic Youth. They're getting closer to it.

Goodbye 20th Century
SYR (1999)
If you're willing to sit down and listen to nearly two hours of atonal, ambient guitar noise and try actively to uncover the larger structure hiding under it all, Goodbye 20th Century is a trip. If you like pop hooks, the Promise Ring beckon.

A Thousand Leaves
DGC (1998)
This is what we've come to expect from Sonic Youth, elder statesmen (and stateswoman) of alternative rock, surely the best noise-pop band in history.

Washing Machine (Recommended)
DGC (1995)
By 1995, Sonic Youth had become something of a household name, thanks to bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam naming them as major influences and citing monoliths like EVOL, Sister and Daydream Nation as scripture. But the band would have nothing to do with being just musty records on some hot band's shelf.

Goo
DGC (1990)
The fact that Goo is the most accessible thing Sonic Youth had produced to that point is more coincidence than anything else.

Daydream Nation (Recommended)
Geffen (1988)
Whether by accident or design, Sonic Youth finally got around to writing a pretty song on Daydream Nation.

Sister
SST (1987)
Even though this album doesn't have the heft of those surrounding it, it's by no means a less necessary or less rewarding Sonic Youth album.

EVOL
SST (1986)
Does the listener have to approach music in the same way the band it approaches it? Can a song's producers and consumers start in two very different places and meet somewhere in the middle?

Interviews

'Nursed' Back To Health
July 7, 2004
Thurston Moore chats with NATN about the new album Sonic Nurse, Mariah Carey's public breakdown, what it meant to be a struggling band in late '70s New England, and the justification for the United States' invasion of Iraq.

Street Spirit
July 9, 2002
Guitarist Thurston Moore recently chatted with NATN Associate Editor Jonathan Cohen about the impact of Sept. 11 on the recording process, the contributions of new member Jim O’Rourke, and the gameplan for an upcoming series of reissues.