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THE REVIEW
New York, 1983. The musical research is bustling, the most daring experiments succeed relentlessly, that crazy and anarchic movement called "No Wave" has now firmly settled in the city and beyond. It's in this atmosphere that the Sonic Youth, influenced also by the king of minimalism Glenn Branca, produce the album that marks the beginning of their bright and dark path: "Confusion Is Sex".
The record, which in the 1995 reissue also contains the tracks from the EP "Kill Yr. Idols", presents nine avant-garde and hard-to-digest tracks. After the first piece, "Bad Mood", probably the closest to the concept of "normality", begins a journey through songs that are not songs: they are pure noise deliriums. So here the Sonic Youth ferry us from the boiling depths of "Shaking Hell" (with a Kim Gordon in a state of grace) to the disturbing peaks of "The World Looks Red", to then hurl us into the mad vortex of "Confusion is Next" and land the coup de grâce with the delirious "Lee Is Free". All between guitars that now sound like bells, now emit screeching wails; between voices that now evoke sordid lullabies ("Protect Me You"), now scream madly ("I Wanna Be Your Dog", where Kim reaches peaks that she will not reach again); between rhythms now very slow, now frantic. There is no middle ground, there must not be a middle ground, in a work like this.
Madness, alienation, chaos, hatred, fury: every single note of the album is imbued with these five elements, expressed through an aggressive and desperate Noise-rock.
This is "Confusion Is Sex".
An aural assault.
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Summary by Bot
Sonic Youth's 1983 album 'Confusion Is Sex' is a landmark noise-rock record born from New York's anarchic No Wave scene. The album features intense, avant-garde tracks that blend screeching guitars and wild vocals. It channels themes of madness, chaos, and fury, establishing a raw and aggressive sonic identity. The 1995 reissue includes additional tracks from 'Kill Yr. Idols,' enriching its brutal atmosphere.Tracklist Lyrics Videos
Sonic Youth
American experimental rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Core members across their most influential period included Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley; Jim O'Rourke later collaborated and is mentioned as an official member in reviews.66 Reviews
Other reviews
By Alessandro Gentili
Listening to this record hurts, it is harmful, it’s a masochistic perversion, but in the end, the title is a warning: confusion is sex.
A chaotic fury worthy of the best punk permeates most of the tracks, marked by pure and extreme noise; dissonances in tons, walls of detuned guitars.
By ZiOn
Sonic Youth is the band that, more than any other, since '82 has revolutionized rock and the way it is played.
"Chaos is the future and behind it is freedom, confusion is next and next after that is the truth..."
