Customer Reviews

Washing Machine

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Having bought several Sonic Youth (based on constant advice to get into their stuff) at the same time, I was blown away at just how good and amazing their materail is, as well as different each time around. While WM may not be the most innovative or lyrically powerful as other SY albums, it sets a mood which seems to give a modern touch to 60s suburbia or something, with a good mixture of the beautiful and the deranged...it's almost like it's through the eyes of a lost teenager running through a neighborhood at night, half hopped on LCD.

The most transcendant tracks are "Unwind" (very emotional even naysay blissful poetry about kites caught in the stars becoming morning), "Little Trouble Girl" (60s soul inspired flow through the eyes of a coming-of-age girl, features great back vocals from Breeders frontwoman Kim Deal and a few others), "Skip Tracer" (definitely owes some inspiration to Jack Kerouac's On The Road, Renaldo poetry at its finest), "Saucer-Like"(easy going tune about extraterrestrials flying through the cities in "a wonderful vision"), and ofcourse the brilliamt 20 minute epic "The Diamond Sea", pshychadelic lyrics and music that is the transcender of all transcenders. The rest are just as awesome, the title track has Kim Gordon talking about taking her baby down the pop machine and "spinning round like a washing machine, never saw the devil look so **** clean", it also has spacy freak-out guitars (but since that seems to be an SY trademark, I won't even mention it anymore). "Panty Lies" is an intense tale of alienation which resembles unusually that old Jetsons pop song in chorus, "No Queen Blues" and "Becuz" are just plain rocking, and "Junkie's Promise" will send a chill of truth down any (...) addict's spine without being too judgemental. There's also the unnamed track 9 which is filler but it's nice to get something a little softer after such good rock. Washing Machine is a lost classic which every fan should have, a suburbian adventure I must say.

Washing Machine is great Sonic Youth. Although I'd personally go with Daydream Nation or Sister first, Washing Machine might be a good way for those new to the group to become introduced. The production is raw, but the sound is more clear which adds to the music. "Becuz" is a great opener with its incredibly catchy chords while "Junkie's Promise," the title track, and "Skip Tracer" are all great songs. But of course, "The Diamond Sea" is worth the price of the album. See all these reviews hyping it up? Well, believe the hype. It's amazing. Definitely one of my fav. Sonic Youth tracks. Twenty minutes of melody that spirals into chaotic noise. Brilliant. Every fan of Sonic Youth must own this song. Even without it, Washing Machine is a great album so definitely give this a spin.

I don't mean to start a debate among Sonic Youth fans, but this might be their best album aside from "Daydream Nation." Most of the songs on the album are played with three guitars and no bass. This frees up more space for Sonic Youth's dissonant guitar stylings. The swirling guitars sounds on "Becuz" and "Junkie's Promise" only foreshadow the large walls of noise in "No Queen Blues," "Washing Machine" and "The Diamond Sea." SY even tries new genres, showing their own take on Motown with the blissful "Little Trouble Girl," their take on ambient music with the untitled track (the instrumental sequel to "Becuz," which is just as soothing and simultaneously eerie as one of Brian Eno's early ambient records such as "Ambient 1" and "Discreet Music"), and Japanese hardcore with "Panty Lies," which seems inspired by Yoshimi from the Boredoms and Kim Gordon's sidegroup Free Kitten. Even "Unwind," with its subdued crescendo, rises above most of the material on all of their previous DGC albums. This album does two things for them: it frees them from attempting "mainstream" songs and secondly, it places them back in the underground. This album sold considerably fewer copies than any of their previous DGC albums. This album divides many SY fans, but I think it is the best thing they have released in the 1990's.

There are about a million reasons to buy this record, and they're all good reasons. But the most important one is the final track. "The Diamond Sea" is their swan song...the complete fulfillment and summarization of a long and evolved career of beautiful sound.

There is an ultimate theme of innocence and simplicity on this 1995 release from the ever-evolving Sonic Youth. On the albums opener, the indifferent caution of "Becuz," Kim Gordon simply chants "Because of you, Because of you..." but yet somehow manages to imply a greater depth to such a vauge statement. On the title-track "Washing Machine," Kim proudly brags "I take my baby down to the corner, & i buy him a soda pop." going on to narrorate a story of the clouds parting, & a woman in the sky flipping a quater down at her, bluntly comanding "honey, here's a quater, go put it in a washing machine." as guitars squeal & spiral around her. And from there, the band takes you by the hand & leads you through hazey acid trips of songs, talking of sundry eyes, and love being the ticket to paradise. And climaxing with the spoken-word appearance by Lee of "Skip Tracer" and then slowly falling into the 20 minute epic of "The Diamond Sea" which burys you in dreamy imagery & an airless floating riff, with the occassional spell of violent crashing guitar distortion, And leaves you marooned as it whirls away & fades out.

I just looked at the reviews for Washing Machine for the first time. I'm shocked at the low ratings.

This is vintage Sonic, part of a "second trilogy" masterpiece that includes Washing Machine, A Thousand Leaves & NYC G&F.

I can completely understand the poor reviews from the people that don't understand SY at all; Sonic Youth is a particular experience that belongs to a particular urban landscape and not everyone lives in it (and thus not everyone can hear it).

But I can't imagine a Sonic Youth fan rating Washing Machine as anything less than five stars. Washing Machine is a masterpiece with highlights that rival the greatest in pop/rock music history. Just check out:

- The maniacal, orgasm-inducing riff in Saucer-Like
- Washing Machine, the whole DAMN track
- No Queen Blues, the most wicked, most dirty track *EVVVER*
- The way Skip Tracer gives you goosebumps
- Little Trouble Girl (enough said. untouchable. immortal.)

There's not a bad track here and some of the tracks on Washing Machine are tracks for the AGES. Reading four star reviews here is like hearing people run down Hey Jude or Proud Mary.

I just don't get the bad reviews. This is the soundtrack of our lives. Your urban emotions are recorded here for your convenience (deposit $2.00).

WASHING MACHINE returns Sonic Youth to the ringing electric guitars, clever songwriting and multi-layered arrangements that are the band's calling card. Not the casual acoustic sigh of its predecessor, EXPERIMENTAL JET SET, TRASH AND NO STAR, WASHING MACHINE's electricity gives Sonic Youth new life.

With its sprawling guitar noise, "The Diamond Sea" recalls the GOO-era "Mote," proving that the crunching metallic waves that once made Sonic Youth so impressive are back. "Junkie's Promise" trembles with distortion and shimmering melodic phrases, while "Saucer-Like" brings the band's clamoring two-guitar dynamic back into focus. This is the band's triumph--their sound is easier to digest, and invites the listeners to re-examine their strengths.

WASHING MACHINE is also a return to form in terms of songwriting. "Panty Lies" continues Kim Gordon's hipster manifesto series, giving us another glimpse of the world from her perspective--"oh how rude," she sneers, "at least I got your attention, square." "Skip Tracer" hints at Sonic Youth's position as baby-sitters for the next generation of alternative rockers, but isn't condescending. In fact, it's one of the best moments on the album. A description of a singer "shouting the poetic truths of high school journal takers" exemplifies the age gap between Sonic Youth and the new generation, but it doesn't alienate them. It's just such awareness that makes WASHING MACHINE work. Sonic Youth's respect for the scene they helped create will forever keep them on top of the indie heap.

Despite the negative attention Sonic Youth began to recieve for this album it is my favourite album of their's or anyone else's from that year. Very different in sound to a lot of what they'd done before, the interplay between the guitars is tight and complex. Long, rythmic passages and blissfull control of tension in a lot of the songs. It is also the only album of their's which is unashamedly beautiful in sections: listen to 'Unwind' and 'The Diamond Sea'. It sounds as if they have spent a good few months absorbing the best of 70's krautrock (i hear Can's 'Monster Movie' in here especially). Excuse the Heresy but i would part with 'Daydream Nation' before this i ever did this album. John -x-

"Washing Machine" opens with four chords plodding along melodically before Kim Gordon's voice, hovering over the guitar line, breathes the words "wish that I could change the way that you feel..." Thus begins "Washing Machine", one of Sonic Youth's finest and most coherent albums to date. Thurston Moore's "Junkie's Promise" sounds eerily like a eulogy for Kurt Cobain ("...I hate myself but I love everybody else..."). Lee Renaldo's "Saucer-Like" is a nice little tune. Kim's "Washing Machine" has a kick-ace tune, with some pretty Velvet Undergroundish "story-in-song" type lyrics. "Little Trouble Girl" sounds like a demented sing along, kinda reminds me of Neil Young's "Tonight's the Night." "No Queen Blues" is one of Thurston's rockier songs, allowing him to let the vocals rip by repeating the word "no" about 750 times. But in a good way. Another surprise, also one of this albums best tracks in Lee's "Skip Tracer", another "poetry read over music" ditty, but better than all the rest. "The Diamond Sea" is incredible. Hear it. It's probably the best Sonic Youth song ever. It's 20 minutes long and not for one moment does it drag or get boring. Not one minute! Oh yeah, "Panty Lies" sucks. I can't get into that one. But the rest of the album, wooah!

This Sonic Youth album is one of the best. It has a perfect balance of Sonic Youth's hard garage punk sound, and their more etheral ambient experimentation. It you kow you like Sonic Youth already, you will most likely dig this album. If you have never heard Sonic Youth, this album is a good overall picture of their entire discography.