Rather Ripped (iTunes Version)

Stripped back down to a quartet after a few years with fifth member Jim O’Rourke adding an extra layer of dissonance, Sonic Youth recharge with their most conventional, rock-based album since 1992’s Dirty. In fact, many of the tracks with their shimmering guitars and easy, hummable cadences could be considered outright “pretty,” a term virtually foreign to their abrasive, challenging 25-year catalog. With the noise factor seriously muted and their experimental instrumentalism curtailed – only two tracks exceed the five minute mark, “Turquoise Boy” and “Pink Steam” — Sonic Youth rely on their clairvoyant sense of each other, coasting on easeful rhythms and an interlocking two-guitar attack that weaves arpeggios and powerchords seamlessly. They could do this in their sleep and the dream-a-delic qualities of the material suggest they were aiming for a low buzz. “Incinerate” and “What a Waste” work these subtle textures, kept in check with vocals that like early REM act more as another instrument in the mix than as a call to arms. Even when addressing the world (“Do You Believe in Rapture?”), it’s with hearty melodicism.