Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth celebrate their 25th year together with this blast of sweet noise. It's rather more melodic than "ripped", but with enough guitar chaos to keep it sounding Sonic. The real surprise is from Kim Gordon: her vocals have never sounded so downright lilting and serene. Nothing is missing here except for "fifth member" Jim O'Rourke, and the need to prove themselves as returning masters of the avant-garde.

Their mean age up to 48 with thirtysomething troublemaker Jim O'Rourke gone, indie's gray eminences make a light, simple, terse, almost pop album. Granted, the guitar hook on, for instance, "Do You Believe in Rapture?" wouldn't sound so lovely if they and all their progeny hadn't long since adjusted our harmonic expectations. But who better to play to our expanded capacity for tuneful beauty? The vocal star is Kim Gordon, breathlessly girlish at 53 as she and her husband evoke visions of dalliance, displacement, recrimination, and salvation that never become unequivocally literal. (Grade - A)