As a band, Sonic Youth formed in 1981. As a phenomenon, Sonic Youth has always seemed to be there; its influence lingering in the work of nearly every college, punk, grunge or art rock band since its 1988 breakthrough, Daydream Nation.
In its 21-year history, the band has weathered record label scuffles, fan accusations of “selling out” and an array of departed and added band members.
But what has made Sonic Youth a continual platform for imitation and praise is its ability to transcend the ephemeral pop trends of its long career — with its trademark noise rock and periodic avant-garde collaborations with Glenn Branca and John Cage — while maintaining a familiar and earnest sound.
With Murray Street, the band’s 16th album, Sonic Youth proves that certain things do actually get better with a little age and drama. The album — the second in a proposed trilogy on the cultural history of lower Manhattan and the follow-up to the 2000 NYC Ghosts and Flowers — is a simple, beautiful mix of fluid guitar melodies and pure gray distortion. Thematically, Murray Street is concerned with the pairing of place and emotion. The location of the band’s recording studio in Manhattan, Murray St., is where, on Sept. 11, an engine from one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center landed.
It is hard to determine exactly how much of Murray Street manifested out of Sept. 11, but there is a seamless correspondence of sound and poignancy. The opening track, “The Empty Page,” begins with a delicate guitar jangle and pulsates gently into a more powerful rhythm as singer-guitarist Thurston Moore sings the rather eerie lines: “These are the words but not the truth / God bless them all when they speak to you.”
“Rain on Tin” opens with a foreboding guitar strum and the distant voice of Moore, shifts into a lush instrumental and crescendos in a frenzy of sporadic drums and fuzz.
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The fresh and upbeat hook of “Karen Revisited” is immediately likeable, gradually dissolving into a sea of feedback and crackle.
But what makes the album a success is the band’s lack of pretension. Murray Street exquisitely melds Sonic Youth’s prime and mature pop sensibility with its restrained experimental leaning. The album is complex and intricate all the while remaining accessible and satisfying.
With a combination of pleasurable compositions accompanied by turgid cacophony, Murray Street may require some patience to consume. Here is an instance where patience is rewarded.
