Imaginary Albums #20: Sonic Youth

The somewhat sudden-ish implosion of Sonic Youth in 2011, amidst personal matters we needn't rehash here, felt bittersweet, as the band still had some life left in it. While I mostly still listen to music from their glory days (IMHO, 1987's Sister through 1992's Dirty), their last two records--2006's Rather Ripped and 2009's The Eternal--were surprisingly strong. Maybe not albums I'm emotionally attached to like those from my college/law school days, but far from the sound of a band running on fumes.

So to compensate for the unsatisfying demise of the band, I've concocted my take on an imaginary final Sonic Youth album, combining highlights from Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo's respective solo albums. Or at least those tracks which sound like they could've worked as Sonic Youth songs; both artists have had countless other projects on top of the more straightforward rockers. And, yeah, I would've liked to include some Kim Gordon songs to give it a more well-rounded Sonic Youth feel, but honestly I'm not a fan of her solo work (which is much farther afield than what Thurston & Lee have released and wouldn't really fit here).

Now, for my personal CDR version, I did some judicious editing, removing most of the extended instrumental passages and culling the tracks down to shorter, vocal-oriented songs. So 120 minutes of music ends up fitting onto an 80-minute CD. I also cross-faded the tracks to give the disc a more fluid feel (particularly helpful given all the fade-ins/outs I added). 

I think it works pretty well as an imaginary late-period Sonic Youth record. It's more Ranaldo-heavy than proper SY records, giving him nearly half the tracks, but I always thought he was the band's secret weapon, and his slightly more pop-oriented tunes are a nice counterbalance to Moore's musical wanderings.

Here's what it looks like as a Spotify playlist, again noting that it's got 40 more minutes of music than the more song-oriented mix I was aiming for.