Sonic Youth – Sonic Nurse

Sonic Nurse Will Cure What Ails Ya!

As of late, Sonic Youth fans have been suffering from a frustrating Kim Gordon deficiency as the band’s painful NYC Ghosts & Flowers, and even their redeemingly innovative Murray Street have seen very little of her. However, Sonic Youth’s latest effort, Sonic Nurse, offers a prescription for this malady–simply up the dosage of Kim Gordon and repeat as needed. And with Gordon contributing four of the ten songs, the prognosis looks good.

The success of Sonic Nurse is not simply due to more Gordon tracks. Rather, it’s simply because her tracks yield the greatest moments. The caffeine-enriched “Pattern Recognition” has the album coming out swinging as Gordon’s whispery vocals plays off tension-mounting guitars before giving way to her raspy declaration, “You’re the one.” On the frenetic “Kim Gordon and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream” (alternately titled “Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream”), Gordon’s vocals follow the chaos of the instrumentation, endearingly spinning out of control. Though “Dude Ranch Nurse,” and “Love You Golden Blue” are more subdued, Gordon’s Nico-nod singing draws you in, making them equally effective.

That’s not to say that Gordon’s tracks are the only worthwhile ones on the album. Thurston Moore’s melodic “Unmade Bed” and Lee Renaldo’s “Paper Cup Exit,” with its strained vocals prove to be solid on their own. That is to say however, most of the non-Gordon songs do play like intermissions between her songs, as her four tracks string Sonic Nurse together for a strong effort that continues where Murray Street left off.