Customer Reviews

Dirty (Deluxe Edition)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While Dirty is possibly one of the greatest "rock" albums ever made, you shouldn't let the term fool you. Refusing to be restrained by mainstream requirements, Sonic Youth uses a deep rock foundation to enhance their music, not limit it, which results in a record that is jarring, surreal, abrasive and calming all at once. Perhaps inspired by the antics of their more straightforward peers, i.e. Mudhoney and Nirvana, Dirty definitely marks the beginning of a more riff based approach for the consistently abrasive New York Ensemble, but while bands like Mudhoney and Nirvana quickly embraced an entirely formulaic method of songwriting, Sonic Youth merely uses this style to bring the jagged edges and metallic skronk of their vision to the forefront. Therefore, none of the classic SY elements are lost as the band further explores the concepts of repeated bludgeoning power chords overlaid with impassioned vocals and the results nearly defy description. Although every member of Sonic Youth is able to get into the driving grooves of tracks like "Purr" or "100%," they also feel right at home while indulging in psychedelic, feedback laden meditations such as "Theresa's Sound World" or "JC," thereby straddling the gap between the fierce testosterone riddled world of rock and the brooding, experimental underbelly of Avant Garde. The diverse assortment of styles and the wide range of sounds cleverly placed side by side makes Dirty an experience that keeps the listener attentive, lulling him or her into a relaxed calm at one moment only to bombard his or her ears with brutal guitar fuzz the next. An album that can overwhelm as much as entice, Dirty is a complex array of various ideas and motives, which makes classifying it as a great rock album an incredible oversimplification. Instead, Dirty is best viewed as being the point where rock and the anti-rock meet, a chaotic orgasm of opposing noise, and since Sonic Youth is the band who has shared the stage with everyone from Nirvana to the Boredoms, cited influences from Neil Young to The Carpenters, and played everything from No Wave to Alt. Rock, they alone are the only band who could create such an ideal model of diverse excellence.

In regards to the re-release of Dirty in 2003, the actual re-releasing of this album was pretty unnecessary considering the original album is still widely available in CD stores across the world, but obviously, the previously unavailable or ridiculously difficult to obtain bonus material included on the new version of Dirty, is a nice addition. Immediately following the original LP, all of the B sides are quite good, but none of them ever really reach the perfect equilibrium of Dirty, always leaning more towards either experimentalism or rock instead of a balanced fusion. The rehearsal jams however are fascinating to no end. Certainly a precursor to the current SYR series, the Dirty rehearsal jams chronicle the improvisations, brainstorming sessions, and noise experiments that eventually led to the group's cohesive full length album. Hearing tracks like Wish Fulfillment and Swimsuit Issue in their embryonic stages along with transitional improvised pieces is definitely an intriguing prospect and thanks to the reissue of Dirty, this is now possible. Without question, the album itself is the strongest, most developed material culled from the expansive Dirty sessions, but as the reissue proves, there are still many more worthwhile tracks which got left off of the original.

I agree with both sides on this one. On one side, this record sounds 100% better (no pun intended) than the original. I saw them live last year and this remaster actually sounds really close to their live sound. On the other hand, the reissue is priced at a rediculous amount. The solution? By it used like I did. I got it off of half.com for $13 (plus shipping). It's definately worth it just for the sound quality alone, let alone the additional b-sides, nice packaging, and liner notes.

The addition of B-sides and rehearsal recordings recaptures the raw ethos of the music surrounding sonic youth's milestone "dirty".
Full of that voilent atonal noise like "Drunken butterfly" and "is it my body" the album's new additions show a more traditional rock side of sonic youth like "poet in the pit". It is amazing to hear songs like Youth against facism and wish forfillment whilst they were still only ideas; addition of the rehearsal sessions was cirtainly a possitive one.
A great remake of something amazing

This release is really great. Sort of irks me that the original release (that I owned) is such a bad mix compared. But unlike many other re-release remixes, this one gives you more than 1-cd worth of bonus tracks (some of the extra tracks are on disk 1). Anyway, I checked it out from the public library and figured I'd just listen to the extras. But the remixes of the old songs are really compelling. It's almost like the original is FM radio and this one is CD. Whatever. I don't know if you "aint alternative if you don't own this album" but I can definitely say it's the best release I've heard in several years--and it's an "oldie".

A continuing trend among cd packages is double disc deluxe, or legacy editions. Universal music calls their's deluxe, Sony calls their's Legacy. Basically these are "remasters" with additional material included. These releases are generally for more serious collectors of a particular artist. Sonic youth "Dirty" deluxe includes some B sides and self produced tracks recorded on an 8 track machine at their rehearsal space, some are the genesis of songs on Dirty, others are SY noise improvisations. Most of the extra tracks are instrumental. Anyone who is getting deeper into this band's catalog will probably want this deluxe release. Less committed fans would do better to buy the single disc original album release. The remastering of the original album material more distinctly seperates each instrument which makes me wonder if there was'nt some remixing in addition to remastering. In short, Dirty now sounds cleaner. On some tracks I prefer the murkier quality of the original, others are better on this new version. In either case the excellent production by Butch Vig comes through- Dirty is one of the best sounding records Sonic Youth ever made.

Regrettably, Sonic Youth haven't gotten as much credit as they deserve as some of the original purveyors of what has since come to be labelled alternative rock, but "Dirty" provides convincing proof that they just may have done it better than anyone else. Many of the rock bands that gained prominence around this time brought somewhat of an unschooled ethic to their sound, but "Dirty" is a unique, diverse, and immensely enjoyable listen that may well have seen the Youth at the height of their powers. Many of the rock bands that gained prominence around this time brought somewhat of an unschooled ethic to their sound, but these guys (and girl) somehow managed to combine that rawness with their brilliant musicianship to give listeners the best of both worlds. This is yet another one of those albums I wish I had gotten years ago, but I guess I wouldn't have appreciated it that much back then.

Some of the extended, intricate instrumental passages that characterized earlier albums are still present, but for the most part the songs here are shorter, sharper, and more efficient than their predecessors, continuing the process that was begun right around "Goo." Yes, by this point the band had embraced a more traditional rock songwriting format, but these songs rock so hard and so well I can't imagine anyone objecting. Witness the hard-driving metallic riffage and swirling feedback of "100%," the supremely catchy hooks of "Sugar Kane," the thumping rhythms of "Youth Against Fascism," and the primal force of "Purr," which combine with Thurston Moore's swaggering vocals to create significantly more fun and interesting listens than anything Nirvana and Pearl Jam were putting out at the time, let alone today's horrible faux-grunge knockoffs like Nickelback and Puddle of Mudd. Elsewhere, Kim Gordon contributes her trademark punkish aggression on "Swimsuit Issue" and "Drunken Butterfly" and some eerily atmospheric vocals on the edgy "Shoot" and the haunting "The Strip." Another classic, "Theresa's Sound-World," starts out slow and subdued before steadily building to a series of crescendos and some great instrumental segments where Thurston and Lee Ranaldo get to demonstrate their grasp of subtle tonalities.

And just in case all that's not enough, "Dirty" has now been repackaged with enough bonus material to make collectors salivate all over themselves. Tacked on to the end of the original album are four B-sides of varying quality, and even better, there's a whole bonus disc constisting almost entirely of instrumental tracks, many of which eventually found their way onto the album in altered forms. Much as I like the vocals on the finished products, listening to the all-instrumental rehearsal takes provides a whole new perspective enabling the listener to focus in on the intricacies of the music with nothing getting in the way. Great stuff this "Dirty" is, and with all the bonus material this reissue is more than worth its price tag.

This is the CD I started my Sonic Youth collection with ( why go for the original when you can have the deluxe edition ) and I have to say this stuff literally rocks. Neat little eccentric subversive style pop-rock with all the right twists and turns and the personal recordings are even better. Looking forward to the other deluxe reissues

Sonic Youth's dirty was there last rock album, after this the band explored there own sound as opposed to the grunge scene. This Album now two discs is a big improvement(not that it already wasn't great). The album sounds much clearer and in a general sense better. The new b-sides and the rehersal recordings are great. I recommend this to any SY fan.

My favorite song from Daydream Nation was Rain King. The guitar howled proudly, and the songs sounded as if it were destroying something. Dirty expanded my favorite song. Dirty sounds apocolyptic to me (especially the beginning) or at least we can all agree, very wrong. This CD is evil, scary, you'll want to retract in fear. At times I think this is the album that modern Hardcore wants to be like, but they scream instead.

It sounds incredible thanks to Butch Vig at the helm. My description of this with a hardcore edge is a little off, since there's so much variety, though there's still a very heavy and DEFINITELY very thick sound.

My favorite? Wish Fulfillment could make me cry if I had a situation to fit it.

The B-Sides are top notch, though the second CD is only alright. It's more like a decent post-punk album than a Sonic Youth CD. Maybe I'll give it some more listens and get back to you

I was a college DJ in the early '90s and was quite dismissive when this album was first released. With Butch Vig (_Nevermind_'s producer) at the helm and the album title of _Dirty_ (which appeared like transparent pandering to the "grunge" scene), I thought Sonic Youth had lost it, having peaked with _Daydream Nation_. But I was wrong. Vig does an excellent job polishing their sound and foregrounding how LOUD Sonic Youth can be, without sacrificing their complexity. Disc 2 is also filled with gems: mostly instrumental recordings that give a sense of SY's composition process, but they also manage to stand on their own. Perfect backdrop music. Highly recommended.