Sonic Youth find a balance — between formlessness and structure, melody and cacophony — that’s eluded them for a while.
Journalistic integrity aside, it gives me great pleasure to be able to like a new Sonic Youth album without having to force it, and to finally give their back catalog a nice, long rest. You can bet your hat there's gonna be Jeremies who say Murray Street isn't far-out enough, and Ericas who would prefer the band kept things under four minutes, but a whole lot of in-between folk are going to be pleased as punch with the results.
Sonic Youth has taken existing elements to create what can truly be called a new musical perspective in the rock domain, a feat that is often strived for but rarely ever achieved.
Murray Street achieves that rare thing for any band — real consistency.
Despite featuring two guest saxophonists making an infernal racket, Murray Street sees the band's unique and undervalued grasp of melody regained to considerable effect.
Murray Street contains some of the best music Sonic Youth have recorded since the landmark Daydream Nation in 1988.
They have nothing to prove anything anymore. Now they just playing what the wanna play and this is very good.
One of my most listened-to SY albums and for a good reason. This record is just brilliant. From the jammy, spacey, nostalgic vibe to the post-rockish crescendoes. Empty Page is a great opener, it sets the mood for the rest of the record really well - it’s got the jams, one crescendo-explosion and it flows really well. Disconnection Notice is almost bluesy in a way, with awesome guitar work and unique slicky vibe to it. Rain On Tin is mainly composed of long post-rockish instrumental ... read more
If I had to guess which Sonic Youth album sits right in the middle of their discog if you arranged them by quality - well, this’d be it.
What makes this better than A Thousand Leaves and NYC Ghosts & Flowers is that we can finally have bass again
Underrated. Blending accessible sound, noise, and some experimentation makes this record so interesting.
1 | The Empty Page 4:20 | 84 |
2 | Disconnection Notice 6:24 | 83 |
3 | Karen Revisited 11:11 | 91 |
4 | Rain On Tin 7:56 | 86 |
5 | Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style 4:27 | 87 |
6 | Plastic Sun 2:14 | 82 |
7 | Sympathy For the Strawberry 9:07 | 87 |
#9 | / | Pitchfork |