One of the best from one of the best and some of their warmest and most accessible moments too.
From emerging out of the experimental no wave scene through to becoming one of the biggest alternative rock bands on the planet, Sonic Youth are one of the most important bands of the last fifty years and their vast and impressive discography is of huge cultural significance. We’ve been lifetime fans and have been meaning to talk about them on a Sunday for ages. So, we just picked Murray Street for you today, a late career stunner (their twelfth studio album) because… well, it's totally lush.
By the time they reached Murray Street, Sonic Youth had already moved through more than two decades of reinvention. They were long established as key figures in New York’s underground, having built a career on dissonance, and restless experimentation. Internally, the period leading up to Murray Street signalled a subtle shift. Jim O’Rourke’s increasingly significant presence brought a fresh sense of musical discipline without undermining the group’s instinct for chaos. Rather than reinvention, the moment represented a recalibration. After years of stretching what a Sonic Youth record could be, the band stood at a point where they could continue forward without the need to prove anything. The landscape around them had changed, but Sonic Youth remained focused, curious and completely self-directed.
Recorded at Echo Canyon between the summer of 2001 and early 2002, the sessions captured a band melding improvisation with a renewed interest in clarity. Three-guitar interplay became the album’s defining architecture, weaving melodic lines through the drones and textures that had long signalled their sound. The material took shape slowly, often emerging from extended jams tightened into songs only after repeated live runs within the studio space. The result was seven tracks that coexist between structure and sprawl, with moments of weightlessness giving way to sharp, focused bursts of rhythm and tone.
By the end of the first side of the record, it’s just totally discombobulating to think about what the band has been able to cover, all whilst seemingly like it’s so slowly unfolding and most importantly with total cohesion as a band.
Murray Street endures because it captures a rare equilibrium: a group known for disruption finding a natural centre without sacrificing the qualities that made them distinct. The guitars still blur and shimmer, the rhythms still warp and expand, yet the material carries an understated precision that elevates its quieter moments. My absolute favourite thing about this mighty record is that it does not sound like any album, including any of the total bangers that the band had or would go on to record. It has its own vibe entirely, a band evolving without abandoning their core.
