Goo

Not necessarily needed noise (2010-07-17) : 2/5
2 1/2br /br /br /Aside for a few redemptive riffs which helped to usher in the new sound of grunge, the arty punk stays muddled in distortion-based power chord predictability.
great album (2010-05-22) : 4/5
I'm just starting to get into Sonic Youth, and so far I think this is the best album I've heard by them. The music is hard and rhythmic and makes me wish I was a garage rocker. The lyrics are clever, and the vocals make it a great listening experience for people who are into noise rock.
Poop (2009-12-29) : 1/5
The relentless pursuit of "White Light/White Heat" without the balls, brains, passion, and (most importantly) cool.
My introduction to Sonic Youth. (2009-05-08) : 5/5
This album was the perfect introduction to them for me.br /br /So there I was - 12 years old and thinking Sonic Youth were a new band thanks to MTV's 120 Minutes for showing "Kool Thing" and "Disappearer". Their third video I saw off that album was "Dirty Boots", which was one time and it was actually during the day. At the time I found them to be a little too idiosyncratic for me to appreciate however a year later a relative of mine had a copy of the cassette tape and I've heard it prior but never really paid to much attention until I realized that it was time for me to discover "new" music and so I did and honestly my first time reaction was quite astonishing. I grew up listening to vast forms of music but this was really unlike anything I've heard...at the time. It was the fall of 1991 so popular music was changing again but it was not just any change, it was a full on...existence. But just as modern pop culture was headed that way, I experienced this album when I found myself deeply absorbed in it and...for a little over the following year, it hardly left my mind, much less the tape player. This has always been one of SY's most extravagant albums to me. Yeah I know it was their first on a major label but I really didn't take too much notice of it initially and this was at the time when Nirvana was slowly...slowly gathering a soon-to-be HUGE fan base with their release of "Nevermind", which is also on the same major label and from the same producer. This was the kick-start of Sonic Youth for me and it definitely was a refreshing change of pace from all the tiresome, commercial longhaired heavy metal acts before it. I could go on trying to describe every song on this album but there really wouldn't be much point. I'm not saying it isn't worthy of discussion because it absolutely is but these songs cannot really be described. The best way I could go on is to describe the way it made me feel back then and that those same feelings still resonate with me today. I know it can be quite unexplainable and usually the best reviews can never do it justice but it is more of feeling of "you just had to be there" though I will point out some of the excellence that make this entire album. The excellent opener, "Dirty Boots" became quite something of a romantic feeling for me. "Tunic (Song for Karen)", "Mote" and "Titanium Expose" are wonderfully unconventional songs, which have paved the way for me to further Sonic Youth sounds. The music is almost indescribable on this album, which I consider it to be quite a challenge with something of such an artistic integrity as this. It's a mezmerising wave of emotions, feelings, imaginations, and thoughts.
Goo: 'It was all whirlwind, heat, and flash.' (2008-03-26) : 5/5
"My friend Goo has a real tattoo br /She always knows just what to do br /She looks through her hair like she doesn't care br /What she does best is stand and stare."br /br /Sonic Youth released Goo in 1990 (the band's first album for major label, Geffen Records), a year before touring with an unknown band named Nirvana. Goo marked a turning point for Sonic Youth. While the music was more accessible and less experimental that the band's previous work, listening to Goo was nevertheless like hitting a wall of pure psychedelic noise. The album even featured a hit single, "Kool Thing," featuring vocals by Chuck D from rap group Public Enemy. ("Are you going to liberate us girls from male, white, corporate oppression," bass player Kim Gordon ponders in the song.) In "Tunic (Song for Karen)", a song about Karen Carpenter's battle with anorexia, Gordon sings: "I feel like I'm disappearing/ Getting smaller every day/ But when I open my mouth to sing/ I'm bigger in every way," and happily envisions the Carpenter jamming on her drums in heaven, playing for Dennis Wilson, Elvis Presley, and Janis Joplin. Goo is a brilliant album, a "whirlwind" of intellectual and primal energy, making it a true art-post-punk music icon. Tracks include:br /br /1. Dirty Boots 5:28 br /2. Tunic (Song For Karen) 6:22 br /3. Mary-Christ 3:11 br /4. Kool Thing 4:06 br /5. Mote 7:37 br /6. My Friend Goo 2:19 br /7. Disappearer 5:08 br /8. Mildred Pierce 2:13 br /9. Cinderella's Big Score 5:54 br /10. Scooter And Jinx 1:06 br /11. Titanium Expose 6:27br /br /G. Merritt