EVOL cover
Released

The second of the three albums that made Sonic Youth underground stars in the ’80s, EVOL isn’t as harrowing as Bad Moon Rising, nor is it as amped-up and melodic as Sister. It’s a moody middle ground, with a stronger backbeat than they’d ever delivered before thanks to new drummer Steve Shelley. The first three songs — “Tom Violence,” “Shadow Of A Doubt,” and “Starpower” — are some of their most beautiful, with Kim Gordon’s half-distracted murmuring on “Shadow” maybe her best vocal performance in the band’s entire catalog, while “In The Kingdom #19” allows Lee Ranaldo to indulge his beatnik tendencies over noisy riffs and tape collages. The big finale, “Madonna, Sean, And Me” (aka “Expressway To Yr. Skull”), begins as a surprisingly anthemic proto-shoegaze song that builds to a noisy climax about halfway through, then descends slowly to earth, sounding almost dubbed-out at times.

Phil Freeman

Suggestions
Contemporary Chaos Practices - Two Works for Orchestra With Soloists cover

Contemporary Chaos Practices - Two Works for Orchestra With Soloists

Ingrid Laubrock, Mary Halvorson, Kris Davis, Nate Wooley
News for Lulu cover

News for Lulu

Bill Frisell, John Zorn, George Lewis
Conversations cover

Conversations

Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio, Archie Shepp
Caligula cover

Caligula

Lingua Ignota
Preserves cover

Preserves

Matt Valentine
Trillium Killer cover

Trillium Killer

Foxes in Fiction
Historicity cover

Historicity

Vijay Iyer Trio
Dreamt Twice, Twice Dreamt cover

Dreamt Twice, Twice Dreamt

Ingrid Laubrock, Sam Pluta, Cory Smythe
Halber Mensch cover

Halber Mensch

Einstürzende Neubauten
(No Pussyfooting) cover

(No Pussyfooting)

Robert Fripp, Brian Eno