Sonic Youth (album)

Sonic Youth
EP by Sonic Youth
Released	March 1982
Recorded	Radio City Music Hall, New York City, December 1981 – January 1982
Genre	Post-punk, no wave
Length	24:16 (original) 63:04 (reissue)
Label	Neutral (original release) SST (1987 reissue)
Producer	Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth chronology
Sonic Youth (1982) Confusion Is Sex (1983)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	1982 release
Blender	1982 release
Robert Christgau	(C) 1982 release
Allmusic	2006 reissue
Pitchfork Media	(8.2/10) 2006 reissue

Sonic Youth is the debut release by Sonic Youth. It was recorded in 1981 at Radio City Music Hall, New York City and released on Glenn Branca's Neutral label in 1982. It is the only recording featuring the early Sonic Youth line-up with Richard Edson on drums.

Although less than twenty five minutes long, it is considered by the band to be their first album.

Overview

Sonic Youth is the only Sonic Youth release in which the guitars predominantly use standard tuning, yet this album is representative of their early experimental, No Wave roots. With professional production and a crisp sound quality that wouldn't be heard from the band until their major label releases, some Sonic Youth fans consider this album tame, even mellow in comparison to later albums. Drum-wise, the songs feature the more 'downtown' Roto-tom-addled stylings of Richard Edson, approaching the rhythms of 99 Records bands like ESG and Liquid Liquid. The bass, though often playing minor key riffs, is almost funk based, which was a common feature of No Wave. The clean guitar tones, without fuzz or atonalities, contain little of the trademark noise that Sonic Youth would eventually become famous for, besides prophetic glimpses such as the static solo in "Burning Spear" and the dissonant solo in "I Don't Want To Push It". Several of the most peaceful songs in their early career are featured here ("I Dreamed I Dream" and "She Is Not Alone"). "The Good and the Bad" is a minimalist exploration of tension and repetition. The overall tone of this album is restrained in sonics yet loose in composition, as they had yet to develop into the tight and complex wall-of-noise unit that would eventually become more pop oriented with their later work; yet this contains most all the foundational elements they would later explore.

Releases

Sonic Youth was originally released in North America as a vinyl 12" EP on Neutral Records in 1982, and in Europe on the German Zensor label in 1984.

In 1987 SST reissued the album in its original vinyl format, as well as on cassette with all five tracks running on its first side. The flip side of the cassette featured the same five tracks on the other side, but played backwards from last to first, and the printing on both the j-card and cassette matched this: side one had the band name and song titles printed forwards, side 2 had them printed as a mirror image. That same year the EP saw its first CD release by SST in the U.S. and by Blast First in the U.K.

Sonic Youth was reissued in 2006 on CD and as a double-LP with a number of bonus tracks that bring the running time to 63:04. Added are 7 songs from a live performance recorded on September 18, 1981. Most of the tracks played were based on pieces composed by the band for the Noisefest festival held earlier in 1981, while others predate the band itself, such as Kim's song "Cosmopolitan Girl". Several of these pieces are quite different from their studio counterparts, in particular the noisy early version of "She is Not Alone". Amongst the tracks is the instrumental "Destroyer", previously coveted by bootleg collectors. Also added is a studio recording of a song that appears in the live performance, "Where The Red Fern Grows". The song, an early version of "I Dreamed I Dream", was recorded in October 1981. This version is an instrumental, while on the live take Lee sings two lines towards the end.

The 2006 booklet contains new photos as well as extensive liner notes from Glenn Branca, Richard Edson, Byron Coley and a "few notes" concerning the album from Thurston Moore. On the Geffen CD reissue, the tray card is double sided - the side that faces out contains the track listing with a bar code and an RIAA anti-piracy notice and the opposite side has the same track listing without a bar code or an RIAA warning. Despite the CD reissue on Geffen Records, logos for Neutral Records, which the album was originally released on, can still be found in numerous places in the package.

Track listing

Vinyl releases had the first three songs on side A and the last two songs on side B.

1. "The Burning Spear" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 3:28
2. "I Dreamed I Dream" (lyrics Edson and Ranaldo, vocals Gordon and Ranaldo) – 5:12
3. "She Is Not Alone" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 4:06
4. "I Don't Want to Push It" (lyrics Gordon, vocals Moore) – 3:35
5. "The Good and the Bad" – 7:55

2006 CD reissue bonus tracks

6. "Hard Work" (lyrics Gordon, vocals Moore) – 3:19
7. "Where the Red Fern Grows" (lyrics Edson, vocals Ranaldo) – 5:47
8. "The Burning Spear" – 3:23
9. "Cosmopolitan Girl" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 3:35
10. "Loud and Soft" (lyrics/vocals Ranaldo) – 6:48
11. "Destroyer" – 5:32
12. "She Is Not Alone" – 3:29
13. "Where the Red Fern Grows" – 6:45

• Tracks 6–12 are from an early live recording (Music for Millions Festival at New Pilgrim Theatre, New York City; 18 September 1981).
• Track 13 is an early studio recording.

Personnel

• Kim Gordon – bass, vocals, guitar on "The Good and the Bad"
• Thurston Moore – guitar, vocals, bass on "The Good and the Bad"
• Lee Ranaldo – guitar, vocals
• Richard Edson – drums