The session did not go well due at least partially to an engineer who did not understand the band's music. The song, an early version of "I Dreamed I Dream", was recorded in October 1981 at a studio in Chelsea during the band's first recording session. Also added was a studio recording of a song that also appeared in a live version, "Where the Red Fern Grows". Among the tracks is the instrumental "Destroyer", previously coveted by bootleg collectors. Several of these pieces are quite different from their studio counterparts, in particular the noisy early version of "She Is Not Alone". 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 Gordon's song "Cosmopolitan Girl". Added were seven songs from a live performance recorded on 18 September 1981. Sonic Youth was reissued by Geffen Records in 2006 on CD and as a double LP, with a number of bonus tracks that brought the running time to 63:04. That same year, the EP saw its first CD release by SST in the U.S. 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 1 had the band name and song titles printed forwards, side 2 had them printed as a mirror image. 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. "She Is Not Alone" was covered by Slovenian band Borghesia, issued as a 1989 single by the Play It Again Sam label. In his review of the 2006 reissue, Brandon Stosuy of Pitchfork gave the EP a grade of 8.2 out of 10, calling it "obviously more primitive than the quartet's later work the recordings offer a ghostly, mesmerizing locked groove" and that "this is SY at their most icy it's an erudite, windswept set, wrapping distortion inside danceable half-frozen Liquid Liquid beats." Andy Kellman of AllMusic wrote, "Awkward and rather formative, the record sounds like a fusion of no wave and an early Factory band." Trouser Press wrote of the album: "This disc is no fun." Influence Sonic Youth has received a mixed reception from critics. It was released in Europe on the German Zensor label in 1984.Ĭritical reception Professional ratings Review scores Sonic Youth was released on 12" vinyl in March 1982 on then-mentor Branca's record label Neutral. Kim Gordon has referred to it in her autobiography as an EP. Īlthough the original record clocks in at under 25 minutes in length, Sonic Youth is considered by the band to be their first studio album. The clean guitar tones contain little of the trademark noise that Sonic Youth would eventually become known for. The bass guitar, though often playing minor key riffs, is almost funk-based, which was a common feature of post-punk and no wave music. James Jackson Toth of Stereogum stated that the album "sounds like the dark, post-punk cousin of Thurston's spunky new wave band the Coachmen." Drum-wise, the songs feature the more " downtown" roto-tom-addled stylings of Richard Edson, approaching the quasi- funk/ hip-hop rhythms of 99 Records bands like ESG and Liquid Liquid. Sonic Youth is the only Sonic Youth release in which the guitars predominantly use standard tuning. Sonic Youth differs stylistically from the band's later work in its greater incorporation of clean guitars, standard tuning, crisp production and a post-punk style. It is the only recording featuring the early Sonic Youth lineup with Richard Edson on drums. It was recorded between December 1981 and January 1982 and released in March 1982 by Glenn Branca's Neutral label. Sonic Youth is the debut EP by American rock band Sonic Youth.
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