iLike is streaming Sonic Youth's 15th proper album, The Eternal, and I thought I'd share my thoughts on first listen. It's the band's first for Matador as it returns to the indie world after nearly two improbable decades with a major label. The disc is due June 9.

1. Sacred Trickster - This is Sonic Youth, no question. A nice blast of rocking guitars that, while interestingly tuned, are fairly accessible. Oh, there's Kim. I'd much rather hear Thurston Moore or Lee Ranaldo on vocals, but it seems as if the band feels Kim Gordon is its strength, and has leaned on her more on its past few discs. Still, she drops an interesting commentary into the lyric: "What's it like to be a girl in a band/I don't quite understand. That's so quaint to hear/I feel so faint, my dear."

2. Anti-Orgasm - Could this be the band's best album since Dirty? That's premature, I know, but this one-two punch is impressive. (Never mind, looking back at the hyperbole in the last sentence, that I probably declared Murray Street and Rather Ripped as the best thing since Dirty at one point). Here, Thurston and Kim sing together as the guitars swirl, swoop and dive. Two-and-a-half minutes in, it feels fairly complete, and I wonder where they'll take it. As one might expect, this just keeps building, with the occasional break back to the core riff to ground the listener. Wait, now, at 3:30, the song's form has completely broken down and they restate things with some subtle, quiet guitars and light drums. Very nice.

3. Leaky Lifeboat (for Gregory Corso) - Thurston and Kim again. This is a pretty boiler-plate late SY track that has tempered my enthusiasm just a bit. It's not bad, but it shows that it's probably not possible for (or fair to expect) the manic energy that drove the first two tracks to sustain.

4. Antenna - This is a live clip from "Later with Jools Holland" on YouTube for some reason, so who knows how closely it hews to the studio version (it does seem to be about a minute shorter). It's a nice, mellow Thurston tune with Kim on third guitar (remembering, of course, that Pavement's Mark Ibold is now on bass). It feels at various points like it wants to take off, but the band keeps a tight hold on things, opting for coiled tension over release. It works, but it leaves me hoping the next track will fly apart a bit.

5. What We Know - Ah, the Lee Ranaldo track. Some furious guitars and Lee's trademark overdriven vocals. It's no "Mote," but it's still a solid track. "I'd drink a case of you," he sings in one of the most visceral lines about lust I've ever heard. As with "Sacred Trickster" and "Anti-Orgasm," riffs reign supreme here, then give way to some interplay between Moore and Ranaldo on guitar. Steve Shelley drums without using the cymbals for quite a stretch here, giving things a tribal feel while the guitarists solo.

6. Calming the Snake - Starts with a snaking bass line, fittingly enough, before giving way to a burst of guitar noise that is itself reined in a bit as Kim starts singing. Her strangulated vocal would calm no beast, snake or otherwise. There's not a lot here that escapes from the piercing tone of her vocal, so if you like Kim, you'll like this. At least it's short.

7. Poison Arrow - Oh, would that it were an ABC cover. Oh well, too much to hope for. Instead we get a minute of standard SY jamming before Thurston comes in with a mannered vocal that reminds me in spirit (though not timbre) or Bob Dylan on Nashville Skyline. "Who shot the poison arrow," Thurston and Kim sing in one of the few vocal hooks on offer thus far. Another good, but not great track.

8. Malibu Gas Station - Luna has a song called "Malibu Love Nest," and as fitting as that title is for that suave combo, "Malibu Gas Station" feels like a Sonic Youth song before you even hear a note. When it kicks in, you'd be forgiven for hearing a Luna vibe, as Moore and Ranaldo weave very restrained, echo-laden guitar lines. Even when the rest of the band joins in, it's pretty restrained for Sonic Youth. Another Kim vocal, but this is breathy Kim, which is much more palatable.

9. Thunderclap for Bobby Pyn - A classic Sonic Youth riff with Thurston on vocals and Kim on supporting "yeah, yeahs." It's a short blast and a nice change of pace after "Malibu Gas Station." Oh, and Bobby Pyn? That's a name that Germs founder Darby Crash went by. Crash killed himself at age 22 in 1980.

10. No Way - Another Thurston rocker that keeps up the pace set by "Thunderclap." There's no transcendent moment here, but things settle into a nice groove and stay there for the song's entirety, which isn't always the case for SY. This would have been a decent album opener, but perhaps is even more effective as a late-album blast, coming as it does before two long songs that close the disc.

11. Walkin Blue - A second Lee song! This starts in pretty laid-back fashion with an almost poppy vibe to it. A nice, untreated Lee vocal. Unlike "Antenna," which was about unreleased tension, this is tension-free, the mellowest song on the album. "Everything we see is clear," he sings. Perhaps the relatively straightforward music is meant to complement that sentiment. The solo does head out a bit, but then things are brought back in for a longish outro.

12. Massage the History - The capstone. If you weren't sure, check out that 9:43 runtime on a disc where most of the songs are 4 minutes or less. Can you say "slow build"? This starts with acoustic guitars and some atmospheric electric washes while Steve Shelley pounds his floor tom. I want Thurston and fear I'm going to get Kim. Ah, there she is. Again, at least it's breathy Kim rather than shrieking Kim. It took nearly two minutes to get to the vocal, though it didn't ever drag. The music doesn't change behind her, however, as the band maintains the stripped-down vibe. This segues nicely out of "Walkin Blue," though I expect things to explode soon. By the 4-minute mark, you can feel the slow build fully under way. By the 6-minute mark, Shelley's cymbals are the only sound, and the band brings the acoustic guitars back to restate the theme. From there, things get even more stripped down, with Kim singing over nothing more than a faint bass line as the song moves into its final minute. Talk about subverting expectations. This ends with a whimper, not a bang.

So, the sentiments expressed as I listened to track two were premature at best; this is a solid, at times quite good Sonic Youth album, but I think Murray Street is still better. That said, it's a very different album, marrying the guitar textures of that album with the shorter, more arranged song structure of Rather Ripped. It's definitely as good a record as any 30-year-old band could hope to make, and one that honors the band's legacy while not allowing itself to be mired in nostalgia.

Labels: first listen, music