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Sonic Youth have been associated with a bewildering number of styles and movements over their 20 year history and whilst it a near impossible task to pick a favourite album out of their rich and varied oeuvre, ‘Goo’ would probably be the best place for the uninitiated to start, the only snag is that it's devilishly difficult to get hold of.
The last of five indispensable albums Sonic Youth released in the late 1980s, they had the good sense to ensure their first release with major label muscle behind it was also their most accessible. Their well-documented tendency toward feedback-drenched experimentation is held in check and forced into coherent 3-minute song structures. But this temporary embrace of rock n’ roll conventions is solely on SY’s terms and in no way smacks of a sell out (Goo is often unfairly labelled as bubblegum punk by elitist SY fans) yet in it’s own way as adventurous and diverse any of its predecessors, the only constant being those expertly de-tuned guitars. Lyrically and musically all three of the band’s songwriters are at the top of their game: Kim Gordon manages to simultaneously trash the mythologizing of dead musical icons and pay tribute to heroine Karen Carpenter on ‘Tunic.’ Whilst Thurston Moore displays his long term love of hardcore punk on the abrasive ‘Mildred Pierce’ and the often overlooked Lee Ranaldo produces one of the finest songs on this or any Sonic Youth album in the form of ‘Disappearer.’ Like all great SY albums, Goo manages to simultaneously give an immediate pure noise thrill, whilst ceaselessly pushing the boundaries of popular music. Indeed by ceaselessly innovating for 20 years Sonic Youth have changed the face of ‘alternative’ music. Almost every significant band of the past decade is forever in their debt: Goo is the best place to begin finding out why. 10/10
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