music really is a funny thing... i've spent the better part of 20+ years trying to figure out why all the cool kids LOVE sonic youth but, frankly, i don't... and today, forcing myself to sit down and listen to a whole one of their albums for the first time in jesus knows how many years, i figured it out. i can't stand the way any of them sing. that simple. the songs start great for me -- i love dissonance, i think the white noise and angular guitar work is fabulous, and then they open their mouths. and they're not lou reed or iggy pop or richard hell or tom verlaine. and so, i just leave disappointed.
i get totally why this album is critically lauded, why it's important, and why it was SO different to the stuff going on around it at the time. i also totally get why my husband, the inimitable JCE, would be so thrilled with them (he of the no-wave persuasion). but with the exception of 'teenage riot' on this album -- and probably because it's the first song and i haven't lost my marbles yet screaming, 'thurston! kim! shut the fuck up!' -- i just can't listen to this... maybe there's an instrumental version wandering out there where my doppelgänger has decided just to dub out the vocals and enjoy what's fantastic about the sound of this album.
on a totally tangential note, we visited one of the pieces of the 'candle' series -- another piece in the series serves as the cover of this album -- at the art institute of chicago not long ago. if you are unfamiliar with the work of gerhard richter, and you like minimalist and abstract work, you're missing out on perhaps one of our most important living artists. enjoy his works.
Reminds me that I still need to do my top 10 album covers posts.. another thing on my growing to do list.
ReplyDelete