WHAKAOHO 006: Sonic Youth - Bad Moon Rising (2004)

 

WHAKAOHO 006

Sonic Youth - Bad Moon Rising (1985)

Look at the cover for this album, it is insane. The title text colours, the sunset, the green bars on the left and right hand sides. What the fuck. A contender for one of my favourite covers of all time.

This album sounds like absolute danger. It's a far cry from the expectations I had for Sonic Youth considering my only listen prior to this one was Daydream Nation. This album is dark and ambient and gloomy.  According to wikipedia, at the time the band felt they had no future in their musical approach, and so changed all their equipment and detuned their instruments so they couldn't play old songs. A truly unique sound emerges from this experiment, and one that was likely very out of the ordinary for listeners at the time. I know it definitely would have thrown me off a good 5 years ago.

My favourite track is definitely "Brave Men Run (In My Family)" The starting riff is nice, it delves into darkness, then it plays out with Kim Gordon singing. The lyrics fold in and out repeating the two versions of brave men running in her family, both metaphorically and literally (Apparently inspired by an Edward Ruscha painting). The lyrics are continuous and drive through the track, much like the instrumentation. This whole thing culminates in noise and ends with a Lou Reed sample. Something about this track absolutely clicks into my brain. I love this song a lot.

"Society Is a Hole" is a mud pool of garbage and slop, and paints a picture of the title with great detail. "Death Valley 69" features Lydia Lunch and is something I would place alongside a car chase scene in a movie, it is also apparently about the Manson family, which I did not catch on my first listen. "Ghost Bitch" is about US colonisation. I am surprised by how many topics and time the whole project covers.

I think this album is worth listening even just because of it's unique placement in the bands discography. Sonic Youth is no small unknown band, but this album resembles something you'd find on bandcamp for free with zero supporters. It's dark, and brooding, but it's also expressive and insightful. I feel as though musicians don't take chances or experiment like this often enough.

- R

"Seven days and seven nights, 

I dreamt a sailors dream at sea"

Favourite songs:

"Brave Men Run"

"Death Valley 69"

"Hallowe'en"

Listen:

https://sonicyouth.bandcamp.com/album/bad-moon-rising

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKBtVe-krtM