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Rating: 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.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 (She's in a) Bad Mood (05:30)
[Thurston]
She's in a bad mood
But I won't fall for it
I believe all her lies
But I can't fall for it
She's in a bad mood
But i won't fall for it
I believe all her lies
But i can't fall for it
02 Protect Me You (05:21)
[Kim] Protect me from ravagement I'm ten years old I don't know what to do Protect me myself I'm fourteen There's nothing to do Protect me yourself I'm sixteen Protect me from starving I'm eighteen Protect me you I don't know what to do Protect me demons That come at night I don't know what they say Their whispering Sends the night air away And makes me forget I hope they come Again and again Here they come Again and again I hope they come again Again Again
04 Shaking Hell (03:56)
[Kim]
She's finally discovered she's a...
He told her so
She's finally discovered she's a...
He told her so
She's finally discovered she's a...
He told her so
Come closer and I'll tell you
Come closer and I'll tell you
Come closer and I'll take off your dress
I'll take off your dress
I'll shake off your flesh
I'll shake off your flesh
I'll shake off your flesh
Shake off your flesh
Shake off your flesh
Turn around
Turn around
Turn around
Shake
[repeat nine times]
Shake off your flesh
Shake off your flesh
Shake off your flesh
Shake off your flesh
Shake shake
[repeat eighteen times]
Shake
05 Inhuman (03:56)
Oi
Aha [repeat ten times]
My body is a pasttime
My mind is a simple joy
I learned my lesson
The hardest way
But you don't know me
But you don't know me
A complete inhuman
Complete inhuman
Complete inhuman
Complete inhuman
My body is a past time
My mind is a simplejoy
I learned my lesson
The hardest way
But you don't know me
But you don't know me
Complete inhuman
Complete inhuman
Complete inhuman
Complete inhuman
Inhu-inhuman
Inhu-inhuman
Inhuman
Inhuman
Inhuman
Inhuman
Inhuman
Inhuman
07 Confusion Is Next (03:21)
I maintain that
Chaos is the future
And beyond it is freedom
Confusion is next and next after that is the truth
You gotta cultivate what you need to need
Sonic tooth
Sonic tooth
Sonic tooth
Stick your fingers
In your mouth
Squeeze your tongue
And wrench it out
From its ugly fucking cancer
Its ugly fucking cancer
Root
You gotta cultivate what you need to need
Sonic tooth
Sonic tooth
Sonic tooth
Chaos is the future
And beyond it is freedom
Confusion is next and next after that is the truth
You gotta cultivate what you need to need
Sonic tooth
Sonic tooth
Sonic tooth
Sonic tooth
Stick your fingers
In your mouth
Squeeze your tongue
And wrench it out
From its ugly fucking cancer
Its ugly fucking cancer
Root
You gotta cultivate what you need to need
Sonic tooth
Sonic tooth
Sonic tooth
Sonic tooth
Tell nothing but the truth
08 Making the Nature Scene (02:56)
Going back to these origins
The city is a natural scape
order in the details
Confusion uproar in the whole
In nature reality is selection
the tool of critical intervention
Fragmentation is the rule
Unity is not taught in school
You are an unnatural growth
On a funny sunny street
The city has forgotten you
It's symbols of the past
The meaning of its state
Its order of decay
Stand now in a column
And make the nature scene
Standing now in columns
making the nature scene
making the nature scene
waiting to make their pay
There is no resistance to
the signs along the way
standing all in columns
waiting to make their pay
making the nature scene
Waiting for the day
There is no resistance to
There is no resistance to
Salvation means to count on you
It just means to count on you
Make the nature scene
Making the nature scene
Making the nature scene
Making the nature scene
Going back to these origins
The city is a natural scape
order in the details
Confusion uproar in the whole
In nature reality is selection
the tool of critical intervention
Fragmentation is the rule
Unity is not taught in school
You are an unnatural growth
On a funny sunny street
The city has forgotten you
It's symbols of the past
The meaning of its state
Its order of decay
Stand now in a column
And make the nature scene
Standing now in columns
making the nature scene
making the nature scene
waiting to make their pay
There is no resistance to
the signs along the way
standing all in columns
waiting to make their pay
making the nature scene
Waiting for the day
There is no resistance to
There is no resistance to
Salvation means to count on you
It just means to count on you
Make the nature scene
Making the nature scene
Making the nature scene
Making the nature scene
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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..."
