Bad Moon Rising

Sonic Youth

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 25, 1995)
• Original Release Date: 1985
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Geffen Records
• ASIN: B000003TAF
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #77,794 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

Bad Moon Rising is an album of inspired contradictions. Chilling yet pastoral, artful yet politicized, it documents a band at odds with its own impulses and the culture that spawned them. You can hear Sonic Youth struggling to define their identity in a medium that turned its back on such pursuits long ago. The album closer, "Death Valley '69" (with vocal contributions from Lydia Lunch) is the group's most rewarding dalliance into straightforward rock to date and a promising sign of things to come. But the song is epilogue to a conflict between posture and innovation. Over the next three years--climaxing with 1988's Daydream Nation--Sonic Youth would pursue the latter of these impulses with peerless results. But Bad Moon Rising is arguably their first essential release. It marks a crucial turning point in the band's history--the moment when an experiment became an institution. --Matt Hanks

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars John Fogerty in hell!, November 2, 2005

By	Scott Bresinger (New York, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music of my life, June 28, 1998

By A Customer

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The art of darkness, the contrast of imagination. , September 27, 2004

By	Thomas Frey "...and we will laugh...." (Tipperary, Ireland) - See all my reviews

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.