Album Review: Sonic Youth - The Eternal (2009)

For nearly twenty years, Sonic Youth released their albums for Geffen records, starting with the both over- and under-rated Goo. Now, during what can possibly be described as a "career renaissance," they've gone over to the powerful indie label Matador Records. This doesn't mean Sonic Youth is taking a step back away from the mainstream, as The Eternal is probably as mainstream, if not more so, than 2006's Rather Ripped.

Not that sounding more mainstream means Sonic Youth are even close to approaching anything you'd hear on Top 40 radio. The sound on The Eternal, however, does hark back to the dirtier guitar sound used on Goo and Dirty, when Sonic Youth first really started to get some slight mass attention. Unlike those albums, which were atonal monstrosities that, along with Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star, I still consider to be the nadir of Sonic Youth's career, the dirty guitar sound on The Eternal is used in conjunction with the new-found melodic tendencies that have been steadily growing in SY's work since 2002's Murray Street.

Unfortunately, this looking back to the past is precisely what Sonic Youth didn't need to do. Their last three albums (Murray Street, Sonic Nurse, and Rather Ripped) have all been great to varying degrees, mainly because Sonic Youth has found a way to continue their noise-rock tradition while still pushing things forward. On The Eternal, however, nothing seems new. Everything seems like "typical" Sonic Youth, something that could really never be said about past albums. Sure, some of their songs would sound similar across albums, but every album had at least a handful of songs that sounded unlike anything they had done in the past. On The Eternal, every single song reminds me of something from Sonic Youth's past.

The Eternal is not completely without merit, however. Both "Anti-Orgasm" and "Antenna" deconstruct into noise jams about halfway through, something that has always been a highlight of Sonic Youth's music. The duo of closers, "Walking Blue" and "Massage the History" are also very strong tracks, the second of which marks Sonic Youth's first over-nine-minute song since Murray Street, and is probably the strongest track on the entire album. Featuring a building mixture of acoustic and electric guitars, "Massage the History" is allowed to flow and evolve as it goes along, unlike the rest of the album, which sounds rushed and bored.

That brings us to the songs that don't work.  Tracks such as "Sacred Trickster" and "Calming the Snake" feature Kim Gordon at her most shrill, and her vocals alone make me want to skip the tracks almost as soon as the singing starts. "Leaky Lifeboat (for Gregory Corso)" and "What We Know," featuring vocals from all band members instead of just one like in most of their songs, are throw away tracks with no distinguished melody or direction, and are forgotten almost as soon as the next song starts.

If you really liked Goo and/or Dirty (I didn't), and would like to see what it would sound like if you threw them into a blender with Rather Ripped and Sonic Nurse (albums I loved), The Eternal is almost certain to appeal. Otherwise, it's probably the worst album Sonic Youth has recorded since Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star.

Rating: 6/10