Murray Street [Enhanced]

Sonic Youth | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 25, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: Geffen Records
• ASIN: B000066I6F
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,873 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

As Sonic Youth will testify, it's not easy being avant-rock superstars. Follow your urge to experiment, and you risk alienating your more conservative fans. Stop experimenting, and you lose the impetus that made you so exciting in the first place. Such is the dilemma faced by this exceptional band in 2002, now wryly rechristened "Radical Adults" in one Thurston Moore lyric. Given the bewilderment that's unfairly greeted recent attempts to push their remarkable music to new extremes--notably their contemporary classical project, Goodbye 20th Century --Murray Street initially feels like something of a compromise; the band themselves admit it's more "song-oriented" than their last few albums. But hell, what a magnificent compromise. Named after the New York street where their studio is situated--and where a plane engine landed on September 11, 2001--Murray Street is potent, accessible, daring, and often obliteratingly lovely. For a start, the first three songs ("The Empty Page," "Disconnection Notice," and "Rain On Tin") easily rank with the highlights of SY's previous 15 albums. Obliquely melancholic, tuneful but unorthodox, all are enriched by great cascades of intricate three-guitar noise. When the Youth spin off on one of these bright and wild trips, these rich musical elegies for their city, they remain one of the world's great musical wonders. --John Mulvey

Product Description

Japanese edition of 2002 album includes one bonus track, 'Street Sauce'. Eight tracks in all. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This may take a while..., September 1, 2003

By 

Wheelchair Assassin (The Great Concavity) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murray Street (Audio CD)

Usually, I figure two or three listens are enough to get an idea of whether or not I like an album. I've reviewed some albums as early as the second time I've heard them. "Murray Street," however, defied my initial opinion-forming efforts. I'm currently at about my eighth listen, and I'm just figuring out how I feel about it. I had heard of, but never heard, Sonic Youth before I heard "Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style" on an internet station and decided to check out the album, so I can honestly say that my opinion of "Murray Street" isn't impacted by any preconceptions regarding this band or their previous body of work. Judged on its own merits, though, this album definitely calls for a more thorough examination of the Sonic Youth catalog.

Anyway, what does the album sound like, you might ask? Well, if I say so myself, pretty great. My own personal experience indicated that this album requires an ear for detail and repeated listens to get into, so I recommend to any listeners that they give this album some time and attention before rendering a judgement one way or another. Based on what I've read, this album isn't as extravagant or adventurous as Sonic Youth's previous work, but that doesn't mean it's without its charm.

"Murray Street" as a whole has a rather trippy and melodic vibe; I could even go so far as to describe much of the material here as "laid-back," but not at all in a bad way. The musicianship here is very high-quality, but the band members clearly aren't out to beat you over the head with their chops; one reason this album took me a while was because the subtleties of the music were gradually revealed to me with each subsequent listen. Traditional pop song structures can be found here, but the band can also launch into extended, improvised-sounding instrumental passages with equal success. Of special note are the mind-bending guitar solos that leave no doubt as to why Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo were both ranked in the top forty of Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time (I personally thought that list was somewhat of a travesty, but making it is still pretty impressive).

The band may have three skilled guitarists, but awe-inspiring, Hendrix-style displays of technical prowess are not to be found. Instead, Thurston and company reveal themselves to be masters of atmosphere. When every member gets locked in together and those guitars intertwine, it makes for some truly transcendent listening. "Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style," which I found to be the most accessible and "rocking" song on here, is an excellent guitar song that displays equal amounts of virtuosity and efficiency. The jagged lead lines and angular hooks are sure to get your head bobbing, and they're enhanced by mesmerizing background atmospherics that propel the song to dizzying heights. When Sonic Youth reach that perfect middle ground between conventional and experimental rock, it makes for some of best listening of the past few years.

The other songs on "Murray Street" aren't quite as immediate, but they're a taste worth acquiring. "The Empty Page" and "Disconnection Notice" may sound easygoing on first listen, but there's an abundance of intricate, fascinating noise roiling beneath the surface. "Rain On Tin" and "Karen Revisited" start out in a similar manner before shifting gears and turning into prolonged guitar-led jams. "Karen Revisited" goes on a bit too long IMO, but "Rain On Tin" is a prime example of the joy of unpredictability, and may well be the best song here. Kim Gordon's punkish, riot-grrrrrl "Plastic Sun" is a short burst of adrenaline that provides some much-needed aggression late in the album. In contrast, Kim's closing, nine-minute epic "Sympathy For The Strawberry" is one of the most elegant songs I've heard lately, with a shimmering guitar freakout eventually giving way to her very pretty, almost childlike vocals.

As I've already noted, "Murray Street" isn't for everybody. This isn't pop, so if you tend to form an opinion on songs within a minute of the first time you hear them it may not be for you. However, I think one of the most compelling qualities of "Murray Street" is the way it forces you to *listen* to each song from beginning to end. I give this album a hearty recommendation to those who want to hear some rock with brains.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars messengers from a better world, October 30, 2002

By 

S. R Robertson "crap basket" (Oh Henry?) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murray Street (Audio CD)

Sonic Youth are simply one of the best alternative bands around, right up there with multi-talented experimentalist John Zorn. This album, like their others, is several things: beautiful, transcendant, melodic, melancholy, rocking, noisy, and atmospheric; often within the same song. "Disconnection Notice" and "Karen Revisited" are probably the best songs, the latter starts out with beautiful song structure, then erupts into explosive noise, then into several minutes of awesome underwater exploration that shifts and rumbles like the tides of the ocean. "Rain On Tin" has a short stanza, then it turns into 3 0r 4 minutes of glorious free jazz rock improv; "Sympathy For The Strawberry" is equally amazing, starting out with the improvisation rather than ending with it, then metamorphosizing perfectly into the soul meets hiphop meets sad shakuchia meets lovely chorus that it is, it then ends the same way it started--with eruptive improvisation. The anger and rebellious behaviour of the album's shortest and most accessible song, "Plastic Sun", is fully realized and right on, attacking the state of things in mainstream entertainment industries as well as the brutal manipulative state of the governing world in general. The lyrics for "Radical Adults..." are probably the best, but the coolest thing about this song is the wild horn-filled insanity at the end...it's sounds like Naked City came along for the ride or something. "The Empty Page" is as well a good peice, but I found myself skipping over it to get to the really good stuff. If there is any hype for this album, believe it. This is another masterpeice by the Sonic Youth.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of their best., June 28, 2002

By 

Michael Scott "esperanca" (Nashville, Tennessee United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murray Street (Audio CD)

Murray Street is right up there with Daydream Nation, Sister, and EVOL in terms of greatness. It is not as sprawling as Daydream Nation or their more recent albums, but it is essentially everything we have ever loved about Sonic Youth distilled into 45 minutes. Some of the most amazing moments of recent music appear in "The Empty Page," "Karen Revisted," "Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style," and "Plastic Sun," but really all of it is great. I especially love the gradually climax of "Karen Revisted", easily one of the best songs Lee Ranaldo has sung; you don't even know it's happening and then all of the sudden there's this explosion of sound.

The album is experimental but not pretentious, beautiful and thrilling, and it will be in your CD player for at least the next year. It is not as groundbreaking as Daydream Nation or their earlier albums, which makes just fall short of a classic for me; I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could. But, nonetheless, it is amazing.