Sonic Youth - The Eternal (2009)

I don't know how or why, but I ended up at a Sonic Youth gig last night. I hadn't bought a ticket but nevertheless found myself in an area next the stage where a lot of people had gathered. You couldn't really see the band at all, although at one point I did see Thurston put his guitar over his head. But they were so good musically that I had tears streaming down my face. I haven't followed anything they've done for quite awhile. At one point I thought I was going to flip over their last album Rather Ripped but instead ended up bored with it. I've just checked out their new album The Eternal and it is the absolute DEAL. It's really thrilling to see how they have honed their craft over so many years of doing this. A masterpiece for them, for sure. And surprisingly a lot of it is quite accessible and catchy! There's even this chorus in "Poison Arrow" that makes me think "wow that is such a pretty chorus for a Sonic Youth song! How crazy!" I also enjoy hearing them sing on each other's songs for example I think there are Kim backing vocals in there somewhere that are pretty amazing considering she's never been one of the best singers in the world. Another thing I like about the new album is the way it's produced and how MINIMAL it is in general...at times it calls to mind their first album and also Krautrock...