 "Steve and Sonics... Studio Sublimation..." | 2008-04-02 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3S160GF5AZW38 |
| Never heard of Sonic Youth? Feel free to start here... Love SY? Feel free to start here... Open with a tune-up of an old blues standard, Thurston style, melting into your anti-corporate riot-grrrit of Kim Gordon's career as a super-model. Thrash me, bash me, and soak me in sound. By the time I get to Track 4, I feel like a Drunken Butterfly swimming around in Kim's stomach as she chants "I love you, I love you, I love you... What's your name?" *vomit spews* - - - This is what happens when you give a constantly shifting force of music (Sonic Youth) a corporate record producer and tell them to please their growing fan base. They please us... but we're the last one's to hear about it. If you've listened to some other SY albums, don't expect to find a familiar friend in "Dirty", it truly stands apart. The melodic insanity is there, the 5-string noodlings and erotic crooning are both there, but the package is somehow... SHARPER than the others. Sharp to cut, not sharp to impress. As you either know or will soon find out Sonic Youth is... well, Sonic Youth. You either HAVE to get it for your collection or you HAVE to distance yourself from the friend that recommended it. But if ONE SY album could fit in with someone's top 40 tapes AND someone's Sonicshrine... it would be this one. (Or Daydream Nation) - DV |
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 "DIRTY STILL SOUNDS FRESH" | 2007-04-03 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3VHHFMJWRCTOS |
DIRTY was released by Sonic Youth in 1992 during the grunge years. This album, their 8th release was produced and directed by Butch Vig the same producer for Nirvana's Nevermind and the Smashing Pumpkins debut: Gish.
Always changing their sound, this is their grunge effort. Very upbeat with a natural rock coolness that includes propulsive layers of sound and fury. DIRTY is the second shot of shorter pop songs in the same way "Goo" was produced. Both Goo and DIRTY sound more accessible w/o the long instrumental guitar noise passages that graced earlier albumsMy favorite songs on DIRTY are: "100%" - "Swimsuit Issue" - "Drunken Butterfly" - "Shoot" - "Sugar Cane" - "Orange Rolls,Angel's Spit" - "Chapel Hill" - "JC" - & "Purr"
ESSENTIAL SONIC YOUTH along with Daydream Nation(which sounds completely different) and EVOL- I also LOVE Murray Street, Sister, Thousand Leaves + 2006s Rather Ripped. I am also a REALLY BIG fan, I had to buy all of their albums.
DIRTY shows a wonderful transition for Sonic Youth still sounds fresh and clean - 15 years after it's release.
-Another 5 star rating from me- |
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| "another very solid SY release" | 2007-03-14 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3EHRBLC0FWCIY |
Each Sonic Youth album has a very unique flavor, and each Sonic Youth album stands out in their extremely lengthy catalouge... yet it is hard to find a Sonic Youth album that is virtually flawless. Obviously, Sonic Youth are not at all interested with perfection, rather atmosphere... but isn't that what makes this band so great?
There seems to be two basic problems with Sonic Youth releases. On some, the production is way too obscure and lacking to let the beauty of the album be heard, and on others, the soaring sections of feedback and reverb can sometimes wander off into obscure directions with seemingly no purpose. Both are aspects that I do not criticize too harshly, because I think of Sonic Youth as artists rather than musicians, throwing the ugly in with the beautiful to create a very realistic picture. Reguardless, these flaws do bring down the overall release somewhat.
In 'Dirty', there are no throw out tracks, great (but not too great wich is a good thing) production, and the feedback sessions are shortened and too the point. This is a very straightforward release by Sonic Youth standards, but also a very dark and atmospheric work at the same time. Everything seems in place here, a classic SY release. The only complaint I have is that in some places, 'Dirty' may be a little too straightforward. Not quite a masterpiece such as 'Daydream Nation' or 'A Thousand Leaves', but a very solid, and entertaining album as a whole.
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| "Dirty sounds, but dirty is nice isn't it..." | 2006-03-05 |
| - Reviewed By User: A257K87KQ1IP28 |
"Dirty" was Sonic Youth's most commercial album. I am not sure if this was done on purpose, but it makes 'Dirty' SY's most open album. Open for the lovers of alternative/progressive rock with an almost jazzlike way of listening to music.
Musically it may not be as interesting as their 'Daydream Nation' or masterpiece 'Sister' but there are great songs on here. Without a doubt this is their best collection of songs.
'100%' was an MTV hit and could rival with 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', the track following that 'Swimsuit Issue' (Gordon) with strained and coarse vocals has a great break and suddenly slows down.
A dreamer side of SY can mostly be found in the songs sung by Kim Gordon like 'PR' or the thumping, metallike 'Drunken Butterfly'. 'Shoot' is carried by Kim's voice and a rolling bassline.
Best song on the album is the brilliant 'Sugar Kane' with some great moments of pure musical genious, clarity, chord changes. I could go and on. Similar songs like 'Chapel Hill' and 'Purr' come close too.
Even know almost 15 years later there is so much you can still discover in the album, it surely shows that Sonic Youth are the godfathers of all the indie/underground bands that followed. Husker Du and Dinosaur came close, but in importance to alternative music only the Beatles, Neil Young and the Velvet Underground are above Sonic Youth.
Their approach to music is almost jazzlike, and like many jazzartists, after a while they started making fully rounded songs but of a scary quality.
If you are interested in buying a Sonic Youth album but never heard anything before get this one. |
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| "Not as Dirty as it sounds" | 2006-01-27 |
| - Reviewed By vaishalirocket |
A very good sonic youth effort, I must say. Admittedly, there are a lot of songs on here I actually just don't listen to for one reason or another. But the songs I do listen to make up for it.
100% - GREAT. rocks. 'nuff said.
SWIMSUIT ISSUE - really like the lyrics of this kim number. "don't touch my breast / i'm just working at the desk"
THERESA'S SOUND-WORLD - good vocal by thurston here, but the title really does it justice. it's a sound-world of waxing guitars.
DRUNKEN BUTTERFLY - this song even sounds like its title, and is one of my favorites on the album. kim sings ' i love you i love you i love you whats your name?' quite appropriately. grating riff.
SHOOT - another good Kim song, about domestic violence in some way, it seems. but maybe that's my over-literal interpretation. "you only hit me when you wanna be pleased".. kind of a sad, but in the end, vengeful song. i like it a lot.
WISH FULFILLMENT - another favorite on here. like the lyrics a lot, and good vocals by lee. check out the rehearsal recording from the remasters as well, for an interesting take.
SUGAR KANE - really great song, rocks hard. brings back a lot of good memories of someone i used to have feelings for, probably because they liked this song so much.
ORANGE ROLLS, ANGEL'S SPIT - don't listen to this one. just too obnoxious for me.
YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM - i really want to like this song, but..
NIC FIT - no. this reminds me of being a 16-year-old at a TRUCK GRIND YOUR FACE show, not wanting to have people spill beer on me anymore.
ON THE STRIP - another great kim song. dark feeling, reminds me of SHOOT.
CHAPEL HILL - one of the songs i liked a lot when i first got this album because it was immediately accessible, and it still is pretty rocking.
JC - a high point of this album, definitely. something about this song is hypnotic and captivating, like you don't want to leave its presence. great lyrical work here and sonically it's just so fresh.
PURR - good song, but not -that- good.
CREME BRULEE - eh. like i said.
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| "noise made beautiful" | 2005-12-04 |
| - Reviewed By myownme7772000 |
| this is my favorite sonic youth album.'91-'92 were great years for me in music,in that so many great albums came out during this period,most of which i have or will rate eventually."100%","swimsuit issue","drunken butterfly","shoot","sugar kane","nic fit",and "on the strip" are my personal favs.if you like noise done right and haven't checked out this band yet than i would start here.if you like this than you are bound to like others like "goo" and "daydream nation".many have taken gordon and moores cues and used them as if they were their own.never forget where it came from. |
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 "Average Sonic Youth" | 2005-01-10 |
| - Reviewed By linus05 |
This is one of Sonic Youth's most approachable CDs. Maybe that's why I'm only giving it 3 stars.
It's good. "100%", "Purr", "Drunken Butterfly" are all great tracks. "Swimsuit Issue" showcases Kim Gordon at her best, most ironic and sarcastic.
Everything else is just average to me. Sonic Youth is a great band, I like just about everything they do. But "Dirty" just didn't leave much an impression. |
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| "Sonic Youth at their best." | 2004-10-30 |
| - Reviewed By marijuanaispretty |
This album is the perfect mix between the strange ambience of "Daydream Nation" and the pop sensibility of "Goo."
It is Sonic Youth's most diverse album and the only completely unlistenable song on here is "Nic Fit." (where sonic youth decided they would discard Butch Vig's fantastic production and produce the track themselves, it is only 56 seconds long and i still can't get through it. [you'll have to hear to understand.])
Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and Steve Shelley all give their respective best performances here (Wish Fullfillment, Drunken Butterfly and Chappel Hill (which is arguably Shelleys best performance compared to "Shadow of a Doubt" on E.V.O.L.) respectively). The band together also gives their best performances on this album, the beautifully sombre "Theresa's Sound World." and the unbelievably cathcy "Chappel Hill".
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| "genius mixture of Sonic Youth's styles: their White Album" | 2004-09-28 |
| - Reviewed By tri-zeta |
And EASILY THE BEST ONE FOR INITIATES!!!!
Sonic Youth, along with the Pixies, were one of the formative influences on everyone's faves- wunderkind- Nirvana. They were both touring together around the time this was coming out. Wow. SY even borrowed the producer (a little history: Butch Vig produced most of the sound-sculpted seminally influencial ((like it or not)) albums of the early 90's- he was the co-inventor of the Kevin Shields Sound"- that furious wall of distortion you hear on Nevermind, Siamese Dream, Loveless...) for this classic.
This was their 2nd release for DGC, and boy did they take advantage of that. You can hear the advancement of production values. Now- whether you want to hear sound qulaity on an SY album is totally up for debate. Whether you think that their brand of noise-rock should go for accessibility is also a debatable argument. I stand by this release, all of it a gorgeous, furious, precision-tuned masterpiece. I remember being 13, hearing 100% and thinking- I want an album that sounds like THAT- THE WHOLE THING!!! Lurchingly sanguine and Demented fuzzed out bassline and two gnomic guitars just wailing- keening with scraps of noise, fire, a maelstrom of sonic brutality pouring out of the desperate amps... Wow. That one track (which concerns the death of their friend, Joe Cole (see Hank Rollins book, "Now watch Him Die," his best easily) makes thIs worth picking up.
You may be bewildered by their approach- but what sounds like utter hell is truly a very finely crafted sculpture of sound. One that they are able to reproduce with fairly meticulous and faithful renderings- live. Each song sounds utterly different, conjures a variety of images and scenes for the mind's perusal. No sleeper tracks, save for the cover of 'Nic Fit,' which is les than 2 minutes long anyway...
(I wonder why this magic kinda subsided on subsequent releases like "Washing Machine" and "Jet set, Trash... their more recent releases also seem- not as magical. meybe it was just me- maybe it was the time. Who knows.)
The brooding, sumptuous tempest that is JC- another ineluctable reason to pick this up. You can't hate that song. It is one of the most amazing pieces i have ever heard and totally stands on its own. In it- all the random noise comes together into a whirring buzzsaw of delectable hell while Kim meanders, pensively, a beautiful tale that is completely impressionistic and always makes me feel swamped with loss...
All tracks winners. each and every one. These songs seem like children to me. Never grow up. I put this on and sink back into my headphones and BOOM! It's 1992 again and I'm 13 and pining for my best friend, hating her boyfriend, reading Salvatore's Dark Elf trilogy, messing around with a guitar (thought I invented the e minor chord), up late at night writing bad psuedo Bryonic poetry... this Cd brings back to me the SMELL of my old room. How many Cds can do that? Invoke palpably the sense of your past?
Enough. Just get it. It will not disappoint. |
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| "You'll Always be a Star" | 2004-09-21 |
| - Reviewed By vulcanfire |
| I'm not a die hard Sonic Youth fan, but this is the album that really hit me. "Wish Fulfillment" has become my new anthem. There's such a fantastic mixture here of raw and pretty and heartfelt and humor here that it becomes irristable. Highly recomended. |
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