[.ca] Dirty

Chronique amazon.fr:
Mieux vaut ne pas croire les rumeurs selon lesquelles la jeunesse sonique, croulant sous le poids d'une paternité revendiquée par les trublions grunge, aurait décidé avec Dirty (1992) de s'engouffrer dans la brèche. Certes Butch Vig, récemment auréolé du succès de Nevermind, ouvre derrière la console, certes quelques titres ont une patine plus "travaillée", mais pour autant Sonic Youth continue à voguer en solitaire et à contre-courant... de tous les courants. Et dieu sait si de nombreux sons se voient malaxés au sein de cet album pluriel et forcément brillant. Entre le vif piquant de "100 %", la beauté éclaboussante de Sugarkane et sa pyrotechnie de guitares en section centrale, ce "Youth Against Facism" qui fait rimer revendicatif et jouissif, la déflagration punk de "Nic Fit", les New-Yorkais abordent de nombreux territoires... toujours en conquérants. Dans leur discographie, Dirty scelle comme jamais l'alliance de la puissance de feu et de l'expérimentation, de la franchise mélodique et de l'impressionnisme bruitiste. Un juste équilibre qu'il préféreront par la suite faire pencher d'un côté ou de l'autre. Plutôt de l'autre d'ailleurs. --Fabrice Privé

From Amazon.com:
A must-buy for any teen or twentysomething who considers themselves the least bit cool. With Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore swopping leads, it's a beautifully paced disc exploding with beatific beats, white-noise assaults and great, grungy pop ("Sugar Kane," "Chapel Hill"). --Jeff Bateman

kewl alternative punk tunes:
One of the great neo-punk bands. But it's not just one-dimensional punk. These guys can do acoustic ballad, etc. Somebody told me they sound horrible "live", but either way I think they're a really good band on record. This album is a good starting point. David Rehak author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"

How dare they sell out?! *pfffft*:
I'll back this. With all due respect, it's more interesting to hear than Daydream Nation. The recording quality is better. There's still screechy feedback noise. The songs are pretty good. Kim is no worse here than on any other Sonic Youth album. I say dig in. Ditto for Goo and Experimental Jet Set blah blah blah.

As brilliant as Daydream Nation, though totally different:
Dirty and Daydream Nation are the only two Sonic Youth albums I own, but they are both utterly amazing, though for different reasons. In the case of Dirty, its for cooler-than-cool, disaffected post-punk and grunge-pop. More song-based and straight-ahead rock than the somewhat proggy Daydream Nation, its nevertheless tempered with fine bursts of white noise, magical guitar duelling, grinding riffs and propelling, heavy bass. Everyone mentions '100%' and 'Sugar Kane', and both are good, the former a driving, posturing, cool punk number and the latter a radio-friendly, poppy rock song. However this album by no means stops there. Springing to mind is the utterly wonderful 'Theresa's Sound-world' which builds from quiet, reflective melody to a wall of beautiful, heavy, ear-bleeding noise. 'Drunken Butterfly' is propelled by a catchy riff (recently ripped off by Cooper Temple Clause for their single 'Promises Promises') and an earnestly ironic chorus of 'I love you, I love you, I love you, what's your name?'. Their political drive comes to the fore on the slower, but equally menacing 'Youth Against Fascism', which contains sneering vocals, a monster of a bass sound and guitars that sound as if they are being ritualistically tortured rather than played. The album veers from creepy ('Shoot', 'On The Strip') to all-out punk ('Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit' and the cover of 'Nic's Fit'). The more commercial 'Chapel Hill' sits alongside 'Sugar Kane' nicely, but every track on here has a sense of melody. Then there is a bit of lunacism, like the strange and twisted closer 'Creme Brulee'. Every track on this album digs its own musical furrow and the album is all the better for it as despite its length of 15 tracks each one is worthy of high acclaim. Above all, listening to Dirty, you get the sense that they were influencing scores of alternative bands to come: much of the album seems a template for bands like My Vitriol, Cooper Temple Clause and Ikara Colt, 'Youth Against Fascism' seems to have influenced Mclusky and 'Chapel Hill' sounds like it may have wormed its way into the minds of the Manic Street Preachers at times. This is an amazing album, an equal of Daydream Nation, and probably the best starting point for newcomers to this brilliant band.

A few reallllllly good songs:
Called Sonic Youth's 'commercial effort', "Dirty" remains pretty avante garde to my ears. 'Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit' sounds most like the noisey Sonic Youth you are accustomed to hearing. What happens when the band tries to create more...normal songs? They virtually invented what I like to call the 'epic noise song', a structure started with their greatest song 'Schizophrenia' on sister and continued with 'Teenage Riot'. On this album, the songs: 'Sugar Kane', 'Chapel Hill', and 'Purr' all create a sort of rock and roll symphonic noise when what seems like accessible songs spiral into a sort of noise jam. Overall this album deserves a 4 because of some of the filler noise songs. However, this is still a wonderful album and worth a listen in the future.

100% Wish Fulfillment.:
It's hard to say what the best "Sonic Youth" album is, but this is one of them. It's an album that has it all. Some straight forward rockers, some that are just beautiful noise, and Kim or Thurston singing on most of the tracks. Anyone who likes their albums "Goo" or "Washing Machine" should like this too. It's a long way from "Confusion is Sex/Kill yr. Idols" though. Some copies of this have a picture behind the cd, of a nude man and woman molesting stuffed animals. Mine does anyway. There's also a new "Deluxe Edition" of this with a bonus disc. Whichever one you choose, it will go great with your "Dinosaur Jr" and "Pixies" cd's.

• 100%
• Swimsuit Issue
• Theresa's Sound World
• Drunken Butterfly
• Shoot
• Wish Fulfillment
• Sugar Kane
• Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit
• Youth Against Fascism
• Nic Fit
• On the Strip
• Chapel Hill
• JC
• Purr
• Créme Brûlèe