Sonic Youth

In the dozen-odd years that Sonic Youth have been shaping noise into music, the band's
sound has grown along with its original vision – nothing short of the redefinition of rock &
roll. Now, the Sonics' third album for Geffen, Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star (not
nicknames for the group's foursome, as one might expect, but possibly some Japanese
sweat-shirt manufacturer's idea of New York cool, written in Americanese), put... More >

Instead of distilling their weakness for experimental trash into noise-rock that sounds like a million bucks, they apply their skill at major-label compromise to their eternal propensity for experimental trash. After all this time, they know what they're doing when they f*ck around, and their long-evolving rock and roll groove breaks down only when they have something better to do--there's nothing aleatory, accidental, or incompetent about it. Anyway, usually the groove holds; this is no Sister because it moves when it means to. Its unexpected noises are the marks of flesh-and-blood creatures thinking and feeling things neither you nor they have ever thought or felt before. If they can't quite put those things into words, that's what unexpected noises are for. (Grade: A)