Sonic Youth were moving into their adult stage and this album signaled that anything was on the table for them.
Coming off the mixed bag of Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, the band decamped to Memphis to record without NYC distractions. With Thurston and Kim recently having their first child Coco, the band was starting to grow into a different phase, so much so the band wanted to change their name at this point to Washing Machine.
They stuck with Sonic Youth and Washing Machine (the album) is clearly that first step into what can be considered the second half of their career. The maturing group got in a groove as the songs stretch out and take on even more interesting dimensions. From this release until the break up of the band post 2009's The Eternal, the group demonstrated they could move, evolve, extend, shorten, add/subtract members and simply do it all, delivering their own brand of unique rock goods. While some early albums hit higher highs, their second half consistency is pretty amazing.
The first three songs on the album set the tone for everything to follow. "Becuz", "Junkie's Promise" and "Saucer Like" find Gordon, Moore and Lee Ranaldo respectively singing lead while all three tunes have a bit of noise, stomp, space and searching. None of the songs are ever in a hurry here. The title track goes long with a crackling feedback extended section while Gordon brings on Kim Deal for a fifties throwback tune, "Little Trouble Girl". Ranaldo also nails a mix of rambling poetry and bouncing low end around clanging and questioning guitars on "Skip Tracer".
All of the above songs are cool, interesting and worth the listen, but nothing can compare to the best song the band ever released, "The Diamond Sea". The twenty minute closing track, if anything, should be longer (see The Destroyed Room) as the band was channeling something special.
The best comparison for this would be The Grateful Dead's "Dark Star" and it would have been amazing if SY had treated their song the way the Dead did on the live stage. RtBE only caught it live once, at Lollapalooza 1995 and it was great, but it would have been mega, if the band kept it evolving and growing. It is catchy (check out the 5 minute edited radio version), experimental, deep, whimsical, noisy, blissful, and overall enchanting.
So on this 30th Anniversary of the album's release let's celebrate it and play it loud, below are a few tracks to help get you started:
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