Customer Reviews

Bad Moon Rising

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This would be album #2 by the best American rock band of the last 25 years. Actually, you can even scratch the "American" part, since no band in the last quarter century has been as influential or innovative. Sorry, Radiohead, I love ya, but Sonic Youth are the masters. U2? Don't even get me started.

On second thought, the "American" part might be appropriate for this release, which is among many other things a quasi-concept album about America, at least in an abstract way. Most of the songs bleed into each other, giving the impression of something larger going on. That would be at once accurate and off-base. Sonic Youth are a close-knit band, so ideas get passed around like a virus. A couple of years later, they were all reading the same science fiction novels and the result was a masterpiece, "Sister." "Bad Moon Rising" wasn't a conscious attempt at a concept album, but since it could easily be mistaken for one, why not? It gives people like me plenty to blather on about. It also helps when they call the opening instrumental "Intro." The album in general seems to be a view of the Heartland from the point of view of people who moved to New York an escape from it. The title, which isn't used in any of the lyrics, references the famous Creedence tune and seems to be a dire omen. An oblique comment on Ronald Reagan and "Morning in America"? Perhaps, but Sonic Youth are too wily to make simplistic political commentary. The lyrics are impressionistic, from "Society is a Hole" ("...it makes me lie to my friends...") to "Ghost Bitch" ("Our founding fathers land rite down/& Indian ghosts from long ago/They gave birth to my bastard kin/America it is called...") to the Manson family obsessing "Death Valley '69." A general air of paranoia and psychosis hangs over the procedings, epitomized by a song called simply "I'm Insane." Musically, SY alter their clanging, oddly tuned guitars into amorphous clouds of feedback and static, swathing everything in ominous murk. It works brilliantly, creating an album that demands to be listened to in one sitting.

If that sounds all deadly serious, SY bring the ROCK like nobody else. "Death Valley '69" brings in guest vocalist Lydia Lunch (she invented Courtney Love) and tears the place down. You may find yourself singing "I Love Her All The Time" even when you're not in a drugged-out stupor, which is what Thurston Moore sounds like, but it's still tuneful in some bizzarro-world kind of way. Kim Gordon's bass line on "I'm Insane," along with Bob Bert's tribal drumming is particularly compelling. (Side note: this would be Bert's first and last SY disc before leaving to join friendly rivals Pussy Galore; their "Dial M for Motherf******" is highly recommended)

The Geffen reissue edition adds on some crucial non-album tracks. "Flower" and "Halloween" were originally issued as 12" single and only add to the mayhem. Sonic Youth created the sound that defined the underground scene in NYC's Lower East Side, and soon this comment on the Heartland would influence it, giving rise to great (if lesser-known) bands such as the Cows and Hammerhead. Even today, the sheer freakiness of on display here is a "Bad Moon Rising" indeed, but in a good way.

Bad Moon Rising is arguably the best Sonic Youth album that I own (their debut "Confusion is Sex" comes in at a close second). Straddling the chasm between sonorous ambient noise and demonic art-punk fury, BMR raises out of the ashes of these contradictions to create a vicious beautiful sound. One song sounds like a foghorn in a foggy New York City night, until the song finally evolves, like a mutant tadpole, into a coherent song. Death Valley '69 is an anthem to bad trips and the dark psyche of the Sixties. A keeper. Insane and delicious. Enjoy.

I think of Bad Moon Rising as Sonic Youth's "break-out" album. It's where the promise from "Brother James" on Kill Yr Idols and "Nature Scene" on Confusion is Sex begins to be fulfilled. It's not an album for the faint of heart - post Daydream Nation fans may find it downright abrasive. However, Bad Moon Rising is where the sound and essence of Sonic Youth takes shape - from the nightmarish noise of "Brave Men Run" and "I love her all the time" to the anthemic "Death Valley 69", this is where Sonic Youth really begins to take shape. Of their 80's releases, this album gives you the best idea of where Sonic Youth has come from and what they may still bring to the table. A "must have" for your SY collection.

Probebly the best album S Y ever done. It was my first Sonic product and my first contact with experimental music, I was amazed. The following year, Bad Moon Rising, sneaked in to my record player and cried out all that fury and anger that only Sonic could create. The opening tune, which is totaly instrumental takes the listener to the nest track, "Brave man run" and Kim Gordon, the bas, are letting us in to her mind. Every member of the band leaves an eternal voice behind and all that's inside of'em are expressed by their instruments and vocals. The most complex and creative record made in modern time. Bad Moon Rising got me in to similar music and a new world was exposed for me.

First of all sorry for my english. It is certainly not good enough to express all my feelings and thoughts. But I will try. Iam fascinated by their music. They can express every mood. I can listen to their music everywhen because it is like my blood. The most impressive song of Bad moon rising is Intro. Just instrumental song, so deep, so eternal makes me cry and smile too. You can hear typical Thurston 's guitar. One of the best moments of this song is the moment after the pause after the guitar nostalgical start when drums bring new energy. They are an original of the original.

After the claustrophobic nightmare ( I mean that as a compliment ) of Confusion is Sex came Bad Moon Rising. And yes it does seem quite a bipolar album. Not as scary as Confusion but then not as entirely mellow as their recent releases. It remains enigmatic though as while listening to this you get the sense of a strange calm with this CD and that's odd given the weird guitar noise that comes with this CD. Obviously the most accessible track here is Death Valley 69 with additional vocals from Lydia Lunch. It's good but what makes this album really good is it's sense of flow - there's no sense of upstaging the other one or the other track. Sure it has it's highlights but it doesn't feel like a disjointed album

I can ramble on about this album for ages because I really love it to bits.....this is the best I can do to try and review this album without running to the point of meaningless jibberish.....buy the album for yourself and see for yourself whether you agree with me or not

this is the begginning of SY. where it all started to come together. a mix of beauty and pain, SY crank out this album full of noisy strangeness that pits them at odd with their own polor oppositions. the band is constantly fighting its own instincts and this breeds such beauty.
one reviewer (mordredd66) used the wonderful word pregnant when speaking of the emotions of this album. this album is a pregnancy that gave birth to indie rock in the nineties. it gave us all subsequent SY albums that were great (that is all albums prior to washing machine, for after that, this band dropped the ball)
this album is anything and everything and the possibility of both. not for the pop listener and not even for the light avante gardist. this is not to be taken lightly. this is not music but a force to be reckoned with and wary of. it is to be listened three times without interuption to be properly digested. this is music that may change your life. this is truly good music. THIS is sonic youth and THIS is just the begginning.

This album is the best that Sonic Youth ever put out. This is the fullest expression of what this band was trying to achieve with its experimental sound. Guitars drift in and out, bass lines drive pounding rhythmically, the vocals carry both a sense of yearning and disillusionment. If you listen between songs you can hear distorted cut-up samples from the Stooges first album- Intentional or not this gives a nod to the forerunners of anti-anthem garage music, who I am sure gave much inspiration to this band. If you like the poppy 90's Sonic Youth (Goo-Dirty), then this album is probably not for you, but if you like the earlier sound- the dark experimental sound, then yes you should get this album.

what can be said about bad moon rising? this album is one of the few that honestly defies words. it is a swirling vortex of both sound and fury, perhaps signifying nothing but then again, perhaps signifiying everything. from the faintly shimmering opening notes of 'intro', the concept begins to grow - moodiness and a conceptual atmosphere pregnant with half spoken, half implied, all felt emotions. this album is like a trance, the music flows and evolves, constantly twisting and turning, and just when you think you have it figuired out, it all comes crashing down in 'death valley 69', instantly an orgasmic release of fury, violence and life. the final track, 'echo canyon', inspired by an old episode of superman, sums up the whole feeling of the album - that of emptiness and loss, and trying to fill that void with pure, swirling sound. its beautiful and painful all at once.

This is an album to listen to with your eyes closed. It's not the kind of record that you would sit in a chair and skip through certain tracks. It's a unity of atmospheric soundscapes. My favourite time to listen to this is when I'm lying down and feeling extremely relaxed and I can just close my eyes and leave this record transport my mind to places that are colourful and often deranged. I Love Her All The Time is a wonderful piece that breezes by in a smooth haze and it makes me forget that I'm listening to music. Thurston Moores poetic genius shines brightly on I'm Insane but unless you approach music as an art-form, you more than likely will just consider this record 'a load of noise.' It is much more than that to the open-minded listener. Ghost Bitch is a great blend of poetry and feedback that is led by Kim Gordon. The mid-section of this album joins together in one big section of FX pedal beauty and haunting guitar noises and is quite fascinating to experience. Death Valley '69 seems to be the most popular song on this album judging by the opinions of the majority who've reviewed this. It is quite a track, the trashy verse which is probably the most simple structure on this album and then the marvellous break which builds a huge intensity and captures a great haunting take on the well-known subject of the song. After this there is the first few seconds of silence which seperates the vibe of the original BMR tracklist to the added on Hallowe'en EP. The EP adds a nice coda to the CD, a collection of avant-garde poetic dronish tunes which are really great to listen to when you're in a zone of imagination and detatchment from the bore that is reality. I've given this 4 stars because that's what I feel it deserves. If I was to give every record that I loved 5 stars it would really be pointless to review records at all because 5 stars is more meaningful when given occasionally to extremely special records that are absolutely mind-blowing. Sonic Youth definitly have made some 5 star records. This is a really good album that is indispensable to Sonic Youth fans because of the fact that it sounds like nothing else they've put out and essential to music-lovers because there's a good chance they may approach music in a totally different mindset after hearing this.