Sonic Youth
The Eternal

SONIC YOUTH_  THE ETERNAL 

A lightning flash pierces Sonic Youth's four years of silence.

This is how "The Eternal", the fifteenth effort of our band, kicks off at full speed, marking a return to an independent label (Cat Power's Matador) after almost two decades with Geffen.

But the intent is clear: Let's Rock.

A stop to excessive intellectualism or catchy tunes, here the band seems back to being serious. Even if with some wrinkles.

The first track "Sacred Trickster", starts, and it feels like going back to the times of "Sister", where everything seemed wrapped in a strange black magic, with Kim Gordon’s polemical intent reigning supreme in this ride, one of the best episodes of the work, enveloped in claustrophobic guitars and a surreal text.

Then the surprise: "Anti-Orgasm" starts, and it feels like you accidentally fell into the cauldron of the Birthday Party, as the emerging electric grit seems to mix Cave's most punk-blues with certain sounds of "Dirty".

But then comes the pop twist of "Leaky Lifeboat", dedicated to beat poet Gregory Corso, where once again Kim howls together with her husband, making us fall in love with her.

Continuing through the album, you realize that nothing is ever out of place among all those dissonances, that every sharp chorus is there ready to snap suddenly from the dark to grab us and not let us go.

And probably this lack of courage from Sonic Youth, after almost thirty years of career, might make someone raise an eyebrow; but here come the other two gems of the album: Thruston's noise masterpiece, which here he calls "Poison Arrow", able to perfectly measure noise and melody in metropolitan fury like perhaps no other rock track by Sonic Youth since "A Thousand Leaves".

Then follows "Malibu Gas Station": psychedelic, black, chanted by Kim, it almost feels like being inside a Palahniuk book, as the air is lit and burning.

And the rest continues this way, at times passionate ("Thunderclap" and "Walking Blue"), and at times slipping away a bit ("No way").

But surely "The Eternal" consolidates the new sound (the last one?) of Sonic Youth after the phase with Jim O'Rourke, yet avoiding the tedious mush of "Rather Ripped".

During this fast journey, it almost seems that their abrasive attitude has increasingly given way to a sort of youthful carefreeness, almost like thinking of a journey in reverse, from the distant and complex "Confusion is Sex".

This is what Sonic Youth are today: classic rock, contaminated and sick.

And even if by now they are nothing more than an institution, everything still sounds damn good.