Customer Reviews

Experimental Jet Set Trash & No Star

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This record is most impressive for its sound - the EQ is just scrumptious. Recording engineers and musicians should take a listen (past the lo-fi, muted acoustics of the first song, the atypical "Winner's Blues"). It's the best-recorded SY album yet, but strangely, instead of using this kind of technical prowess to record the kind of sprawling 7-minute+ epics with multilayered noise breakdowns which grace other albums such as Daydream Nation, Goo, and Washing Machine, the songs here are simple, straightforward, mostly three-minute vamps of a kind not found in their catalog since, oh, Confusion Is Sex, if one really needed a comparison. EJSTANS is a real curveball - a major departure from the flamboyant extroversion of Dirty. A lot of Kim Gordon's songs here have a kind of glistening resonance that is wonderful to behold - viz. "Bull In The Heather", "Skink", "Doctor's Orders", and particularly "Sweet Shine". Thurston takes command of the two-chord skronkers, which often have an abstract beauty of their own, although I could do without the grating "Androgynous Mind."

You've got to admire the kind of self-assuredness that would enable this band to record an album as aggressively unconventional as this, regardless of major label expectations, and after their ascendancy into the new practically-mainstream "Alternative" genre (that absurdity of absurdities) fostered by Nirvana in the early 90's. Speaking of which, producer Butch Vig seems to be something of a fifth wheel here - you can hear that for all intents and purposes, this is a self-produced album. I read in an interview that on occasion while recording, he'd ask for a second take on a song, and they'd simply refuse. The band are in complete command of their craft here, and they need no one but themselves to help them prove it. Uncompromising and dedicated to the last, Sonic Youth are truly a band without peers.

I bought this album the day it came out, hated it, and put it away in my cd junkheap. I listened to it again 2 days ago and, now, more than five years later I realize I, like most of the reviewers' completely misunderstand this album. It's definitely a departure from their other albums, but I can't see how anyone could call "Winners Blues" polished. In fact "Washing Machine" was more produced. What really surprises me is no one mentions songs like "Bone", or "Quest for the cup" which has no commercial backbeat at all, and some of the most different Sonic Youth songs written. It ranks up there with E.V.O.L and Sister.

And I don't really see why. Longtime fans call it their poppiest, and while it's definitely the mellowest, that doesn't mean that it's not noisy or self-indulgent for the mainstream. While the lyrics don't mean all that much, it adds up the eccentricness of the album, making it more fun with each listen. About the only other flaw with this album is that Lee Ranaldo doesn't sing on any tracks on this album.

"Bull in the Heather" is a classic, as is its video with that Le Tigre girl cameoed in it. Kim has an excellent voice on it, as well as it being loved among the fans. The outro part sounds real cool.

Opener "Winner's Blues" is a real nice track, as it's an acoustic-like track, a brilliant track on this album.

I just love "In the Mind of the Bourgeois Reader". It's a punk-like track here, probably the fastest one, and Thurston sounds as if he's having a lot of fun during the recording of it. Then it goes into "Sweet Shine" the only song with any real length on the album. It's a great love song.

She has some pretty interesting tracks as well. Her style overall has a sexy sound to it. "Bone" is very awesome, I love the energy of the drums on it, then the chords are well-progressed. It's just a real memorable one on this album. She sings 7 of the 14 songs.

'Experiental Jet Set, Trash and No Star' is something that really shines on track 12 "Tokyo Eye", a very noisy song. It's very awesome to listen to either in the car or on your stereo.

This one's good for introducing people to SY. I got this January of this year, and I think it's excellent. There are some flaws, but overall, I think it's pretty good. The songs are very short, which helps, 'cuz it doesn't really contain enough epic stuff. So yeah, I am recommending it here. Esp. if you don't like the mainstream much and think that this sounds cool, like I do.

This was the first Sonic Youth album I listened to, so for a long time I figured my opinion on it didn't count. Had to bow to the opinions of those long time fans, you know, who didn't seem to care for this one. I've since heard several other SY albums over the years, and I always gave them a great chance -- because, damn, this is the group that made Experimental Jet Set, etc. And I think I'm ready to commit now -- this album was their best, at least of the ones I know. It was one of the greatest albums of the 90's. There isn't a bad song on it, and the best ones are, well, transcendent. I can't rate this album any higher.

I have never understood the backlash with this record. I must have got a different copy than everyone else. Being familiar with both "Kool Thing" and then "100%", "Bull in the Heather" did exactly for me what it was intended to do. "Experimental..." became a landmark in my life and this album actually urshed me into a world that I know I belong to. With this record I became attached to a band that I hadn't had feelings for since I first heard the Beatles. I am proud to say this was my first Sonic album at the tender age of 12. Had the delicacy not been there I may have never bought the next SY record (which happened to be "Daydream Nation")

11 years later I still love to spin my copy (in beautiful blue vinyl) all while where the "Experimental... t-shirt, I bought so many years ago. This album plays like an audio yearbook allowing me to transport back to when I first heard it. God bless 1994.

I make no claim that this is SY's finiest hour but it is certainly not thier weakest effort. (leave that to NYC Ghosts and Flowers).

I can't get enough of "Doctor's Orders"

Stripped down and actually not self indulgent this time, 'Experimental Jet Set..." lacks the supernaturally absorbing vibe of other SY masterpeices; instead, it gives the listener more brief, 3 or 4 minute average structured glimpses into their strange world of grunge guitars, lyrical confusion, and gritty/imperfect production.

Gordon's songs are similar to her contributions on A Thousand Leaves and Washing Machine, the frequently recurring plunge into the mindsets of young isolated youngsters with a haunting curiousity for the unknown (such as the suggestive sexual exploration of "Bone", the 'paranormal desert at night' feeler "Skink", the naive and unsuspecting misfithood of "Bull In THe Heather", and the album's best track- "Sweet Shine" which is more of an exuberant trip back to a beautiful place where she was born rather than a teenage experience). Her other songs match up with a good portion of Thurston's on this record-cynical, opinionated views of certain situations. This is portrayed on her part with "Doctor's Orders" (about a perfect, preppy girl trying to cure an orgasm problem and ending up being addicted to the drugs) and "Quest For THe Cup" (actually that one borders between personal experience and cynic's view, but it doesn't matter really.)

Thurston's contributions in this area include the great "Androgynous Mind" (a sardonic look at religiously homophobic behaviour in common males), "Waist" (young teens who throw away their lives rather than trying to make something of themselves), "Self Obsessed And Sexy" (about a love/hate relationship with a schizophrenic) and "In THe Mind Of The Bourgeouis Reader" (all pure cynicism and beatnik culture, "We don't care about Yogi Bear and Fonzy's ponytail and dirty hair, so get back in the boat!"). Thurston's other songs fall in the uncatergorizable confusion seen moreso in older records, like the fragmented rapist imagery of "Starfield Road" or the scifi meditating melodrama "Tokyo Eye", can't forget the free association of "Screamng Skull" (Upon re-peering through William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch, I found those exact words. Not surprising since Sonic Youth, like me, owe alot of lyrical inspiration to Mr. Burroughs). Moore also has an SY first, the lofi acoustic ballad "Winner's Blues"...

The bonus track which combines a Japanese voice and guitar feedback is also worth an honorable mention...but the true ender is, and I must say it again, the lovely & transcendant "Sweet Shine". uoiuoip y yu889 blurpity 666 by luck

this album is mature, mellow, and haunting, and i'll be damned if kim's singing isn't just plain beautiful on most of it. to me this (and thurston's 1995 solo album) signal the end of a certain kind of sonic youth. this was the last album where they had those wonderfully bratty artpunk songs. also steve's rhythms should be commended- these songs have some unique, off-kilter structures holding them up.

this record is the one to put next to your slippers and pipe.

This is, well, a Sonic Youth record, so you know what to expect! You could think of an album sounding like the sheer artiness and chaos of EVOL and Sister, but recorded with the technology and bluster of Dirty. But, there is a few new twists: "Winners Blues" is hacked-up, short, and, *gasp* ACOUSTIC! Lots of the songs range from fizzing, amped-up rock (Starfield Road, Screaming Skull, Adrognynous Mind), to speedy punk (Waist, Bourgeois Reader), to nice jerky pop songs, done Sonic style (Bone, Skink, Sexxee, Tokyo Eye, Doctor's Orders). They're entirely satisfying. The only song that can't really fit into any category is the lush, epic, Sweet Shine. It's very soothing, and puts you in a world of love, but at the same time it's very sad. This song leaves me in tears every time I hear it. It's just beautiful.

Similar to one of the other reviewers, I had an old tape of this album, and it kind of got lost somewhere in my car. I listened to it a bit back in 1994-96, but then lost interest in it. If I was going to listen to SY, I would usually opt for Dirty or Daydream Nation. Then I got caught up in Washing Machine, but even more caught up in Thousand Leaves (which I still think is their best, later-period effort). So, like the first reviewer, I thought this was a SY effort to be avoided. But now, 7 years later, I found my old tape, and this album just sucked me in, chewed me up, and spit me out. It is rough, mean, nasty, and fun all at once. The songs are all short (no extended/dissonant space-jams here), but somehow, it still seems like they sneak some brief bursts of jamming in there. A very raw, power-packed album, on the one-hand seeming like it's from the mid-80s, but then it also sounds like mature, self-assured SY from the mid-90s on. Bottom line: DON'T avoid this one. Since it's less popular, you can pick it up used for less than [...] (or new for less than [...]), so, at the price of most EPs, it's clearly worth it.

this is, i think, a revolutionary album in which the amount of electronics doesnt take away from the beauty of the actual music and their voices. thurston's voice is beautiful as always. the way they harmonize their voices is just amazing and kim's rougly ravishing voice gives you chills all over. i love the way that kim focuses on making darn good music without making her voice "pretty". these are the best most superincumbent artists out there today. i would definitley recommend this to anyone who loves sonic youth because this is such an exceptional album. Self-Obsessed and Sexee, Bull in the Heather, Skink and Waist are my personal favorites. never pass this album up, its just amazing!