EVOL
Sonic Youth# Audio CD (September 27, 1994)
# Original Release Date: 1986
# Number of Discs: 1
# Label: Geffen Records
# ASIN: B000003TAH
# Also Available in: Audio Cassette | LP Record | Music Download
Track Listings
1. Tom Violence 3:05
2. Shadow Of A Doubt 3:32
3. Starpower 4:48
4. In The Kingdom #19 3:25
5. Green Light 3:46
6. Death To Our Friends 3:19
7. Secret Girl 2:54
8. Marilyn Moore 4:04
9. Madonna, Sean And Me 7:19
10. Bubble Gum 2:49
Amazon.com essential recording
New York City's Lower East Side has always attracted bohemian freaks looking to shock the world, but with EVOL (Love spelled backwards)--their third album after a live tape and several EPs--Sonic Youth finally figured a way to make their skronk count. Combining alternate guitar tunings with nearly linear songwriting, SY proved they could harness their energy into a combustible engine. The multititled closer, "Expressway to Yr. Skull" (or "Madonna, Sean, and Me"), is pure apocalyptic beauty, while "Shadow of a Doubt" succeeds by being more subdued and suggestive. --Rob O'Connor
posted by kanx1976 at
08:31
1 Comments:
a beautiful artsy wonder By Teacher in Texas (Fredericksburg, TX USA)
I don't own half of all the Sonic Youth recordings, and I don't pretend to catch all the hidden nuances and meanings lurking in this release. However, I must say that from what I've heard of SY so far, this is my favorite album. Though my favorite individual songs ('Washing Machine','Sweet Shine', etc.) are usually on other releases, this album is a sheer masterpiece on both the conceptual level and judging from pure enjoyment. It's taken me a while to piece together what Sonic Youth is actually up to in their music, but they seem to pull it off flawlessly here. Conceptually, this album is ingeniously constructed; combining the songform with the infamous noisey drones and chaotic bursts, sometimes several times in a single track, SY manages to form a sort of theme album that gives off the same dreamy vibes throughout its duration. The carefree-ness and unorthodoxy in terms of the audio image makes the album more of a work of art than a so-called 'rock CD' (which is largely why SY is considered art-rock, I assume). The melodic quality of the music here is superb. Unless they've got me totally fooled, SY wrote many of these songs using very subtle counterpoint and unconventional melodies that seem so dissonant at first that the listener is tempted to write it off from the start. 'Green Light' is a perfect example. One time, at the beginning few minutes of the song, my mom walked in and actually laughed and said 'In my day these guys would have never gotten a record deal'. Now, to be fair, she didn't have enough time to analyze it.. but my point remains the same. If listened to carefully, this song is actually quite lovely and emotionally expressive even though the notes seem to fight each other at every turn. This may be a fundamental observation, but I think the dissonant noise serves to cloak the beautiful undertow inherent in the music. Once you just surrender to the sound as a whole, you begin to see all the hidden beauty. About the songs themselves, almost all of them are winners. 'Shadow of a Doubt' and 'Star Power' are simply gorgeous. 'Secret Girl' has a nice chunk of noise and a piano with some eerie guitar screeches in the background, giving it that 'feel' that I'm trying so unsuccessfully to describe. The Sean Penn song, whichever title you prefer, is also brilliant as it builds to a blissful, climactic guitar tapestry. Even 'Bubblegum' is good :^). Anyway, I highly recommend it.. it is simply a work of art. Other SY releases also come highly recommended.
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