Sonic Nurse

I first purchased this album on CD during the first week of release. The edition I have includes 'Kim Chords' as a UK bonus track. I say all this to identify the particular CD I have as the sound quality is pretty dull and lacks texture. After years of indecision, I saw an offer of a vinyl pressing on Amazon that was not too expensive (I'd much rather spend my limited amount of pennies discovering new music.) However the sound quality is a revelation by comparison to what I've been used to hearing on this album. Jim O'Rourke's excellent mix is as beautifully crafted as on his own albums and this pressing reveals all the texture and expression one could hope for. For some reason side 3 (New Hampshire and Paper Cup Exit) suffers from quite a bit of surface noise which does get in the way a bit, but the rest of the pressing is excellent. All in all, I am one very happy customer. Oh, and this is a damn good record.

Very pleasant album all round .. Sonic Youth being chilled ..

awesome

✌🏼

Thanks

I've been a fan of SY since 198something. I first saw them, purely by accident, on the Bad Moon Rising tour (supporting Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, what a night!) & was instantly hooked, along with a lot of other listeners, I expect? SY were absolutely stunning back then, & completely different to all the other "alternative" (ugh!) music we were listening to - unashamedly sporting hippyish tie dye, happy to profess a liking for Iggy AND Madonna, & not afraid to display their wicked sense of humour (pretty uncool back then). I worshipped them for several years, but fell out with them & their music circa Dirty - a disappointingly opportunistic record, it suggested that they were being trend-led for the first time, rather than setting the pace themselves. Never, er, mind.A decade slipped by before I bought anything else by them - 2002's Murray Street, my interest fired by Jim O'Rourke's unexpected recuitment - & I was so impressed with how they'd allowed their sound to gracefully mellow out, without sacrificing their experimental edge, that I predictably ended up working my way backwards through their catalogue, picking up the bits that I'd missed (A Thousand Leaves is particularly impressive). Their NEXT album, 2004's Sonic Nurse, is my personal favourite of their post-Goo period I think?: 10 fine songs, plus an excellent bonus track (2 if you're VERY lucky). Only Kim's vocal (on "The Arthur Doyle Hand Cream") grates, though perhaps that was intentional?

Yet another SY album is out, and no noubt once again we'll hear the refrain 'back on top form' or 'best album since Daydream Nation' which seem to come with almost everything they put out.Cutting to the chase, this is nothing new from Sonic Youth -- it's yet another refinement of the formula they had perfected by 1995's Washing Machine LP. It doesn't scale the heights of 97's 1000 Leaves either, but feels like a continuation of Murray Street. Murray Street was flawed, containing only three (or four, depending on your point of view) outstanding tracks from seven. In the weeks I've been listening to Nurse, there's only on track I skip -- '...Arthur Doyle Hand Cream.'The album is a pastoral as 1000 Leaves was, yet has that more electric tinge than was present on Murray Street. The Youth seem to be mellowing with age (even Peace Attack, the 'anti-Bush' song, is mellow in sound, if not sentiment).Rejoicing from long-time Youth fans will be heard when the standout track (I Love You Golden Blue) hits their ears -- it plays like a warmer version of the quiet parts of The Diamond Sea. It also has Kim Gordon's first soft vocal that isn't just mumbling in a long time -- she sounds nothing like on Lightnin' or Contre de le Sexisme, and in fact sounds more like the breathy vocals she mastered on Dirty's JC and most of her tracks on Experimental Jet Set. She sounds at once fragile and sexy, and the song sends a shiver up the spine every time it is played. I would recommend the album on the back of this track alone.For those panicking that the noise levels have dropped, the first track on the LP, pattern recognition, recalls the sound of Confusion is Sex in some guitar lines, while the 'modem guitar' effect from Murray Street's Disconnection Notice can be heard buried deep in the mix at several points.While this album is unlikely to convert listeners already bewitched by SY's 23 year journey into sound, it is a great addition to their already considerable works.

It's a cliche I know, but this really is their best album since Daydream Nation. Murray Street was a shock to everyone who had written of Sonic Youth of has-beens, a band of 40-somethings who could no longer write a decent tune and had gotten so pretentious that their most recent records were deemed unlistenable. Murray Street showed a band growing old gracefully and it had a sense of comfort to it, Sonic Youth were happy where they were, making music they wanted to make, and this time round it just happened to be excellent music. Sonic Nurse is a step forward, back into the limelight. The band have something to say, something to prove: they can still write a damn good tune. And this album is full of them, no 10 minute plus feedback jams like Karen Revisited, just straight to the point, anthemic, hard rocking, contemplative, contemporary sounding rock songs. But this isn't a simple album, this isn't Goo or Dirty, Sonic Nurse retains the tuneful levels of experimenting last seen on Daydream Nation and wraps them around some of the best songs the band have ever written.2004 will be a good year for new music from old bands - Sonic Youth, The Cure and Mission Of Burma back to doing what they do best and teaching all their followers just how it's done.

meine erste scheibe von sonic youth. hatte früher im radio öfter titel von sonic youth gehört, war aber dann irgendwie in vergessenheit geraten.nun die erste scheibe im player. es klingt eben ganz anders, als das derzeitige gedudel auf den sendern. manches etwas schräg und gewöhnungsbedürftig, aber auch schöne melodien und rythmen, die einen zu fesseln wissen. mich hat es durchaus begeistert. es wird nicht meine letzte scheibe von sonic youth bleiben.

gran bel disco Sonic Nurse. L'ho ascoltato e riascoltato tantissime volte in audiocassetta e mp3 ed ho approfittato di amazon per aggiungerlo alla mia discografia. Bestiale!!!

Una de mis bandas favoritas, el disco es increible.

Hier gibt's nichts zu beanstanden. Alles Top. Die Platte ist brandneu.

Schoene Platte. Experimentelles mischt sich mit Gitarrenmelodie. Eine sehr gute Sonic Youth Platte meiner Meinung nach.

pese a que la edición es un poquito simple, sin fundas interiores "tuneadas", se trata de un buen disco de la mejor época de los Sonic Youth. Doble lp en carátula doble. Por 12 € y pico, un vinilo muy recomendable. Suena muy bien.

Bellissimo album, anche se diverso dagli altri lavori dei sonic youth. Il sound è sempre riconoscibile, sono dei grandi e lo dimostrano anche con questo album

Hab die Band erst jetzt für mich entdeckt und muss sagen, dass das Zusammenspiel der Gitarren bemerkenswert ist. Stellenweise erinnert es mich an Crazy Horse. Sonst ist hier alles schon gesagt von den anderen Rezensenten.

Great album. Sounds fantastic

Sonic Youthは1995年に出たWashing Machineとリタ・アッカーマンの絵が素敵すぎるサーストン・ムーアのPsychic 'sがとても好きでした。ライブもメンバーは皆にこやか（でもキム・ゴードンはそんなににこにこはしてないかも）で、音もすごいし、とにかくかっこいいバンドです。ただ、最近のアルバムはどうなのかなー、と思ったりして、そんなに聴いてはいなかったのですが、この新譜はすごいです。サーストンのUnmade BedとStones、キムのDude Ranch Nurseが特に気持ちよく、え、もう終わり？というくらい、何度もなんども聴いてしまいます。だいたい一度聴いたら耳に音が張り付きますし。楽器の音ももちろん叙情的ではないし、来日を心待ちにしています。

ファンなら聴いて裏切られることはないです。特に、「Goo」「ダーティ」そして前作「ムーレイ・ストリート」が好みの方、間違いないです。冒頭二曲、キムとサーストンが一曲ずつ歌い終わるころには満足の笑みを浮かべるはずです。このバンド聴いたことない、という方にも、最初の一枚として薦められるストレートさです。ジム・オルークはより有機的に融合を果たしていますし、その結果としてエレキギター３本のアンサンブルメイキングはより周到な感じを受けます。時に美しく、時に暴力的に。

実験的な音は控えめで、ソニックユース節とも言えるギターアンサンブルが駆け巡る、彼らの作品の中においてはGOOと並んで聴きやすいアルバムではないだろうか。ギターとはノイズを出す楽器、という言葉通り、時折フィードバックは炸裂するが、それよりもシンプルな音色を主体としているサウンド構成である。しかし今さらではあるのだが、キムのボーカル曲はどうしても好きになれない。リーやサーストンの歌声は、ソニックユースの独特のサウンドに非常に溶け込むのだが、キムの場合は、ボーカルに引っ張られサウンド自体に歪みが生じているように感じる。ボーカルさえもアンサンブルの一つとして鳴らしているときの方が、彼らの音は美しい。

This is a latter-day Sonic Youth album worth hearing if you love their guitar sound. My favorite SY album since their great early trilogy of EVOL/SISTER/DAYDREAM NATION is  A THOUSAND LEAVES  (see my review), which is their most psychedelic, with great guitars.SONIC NURSE approaches that level of greatness, with plenty of awesome dissonant guitar from Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo. It took me awhile to hear it, but I'm glad I finally did -- SONIC NURSE is better than the previous MURRAY STREET, which was a bit too neat and tidy by comparison. Here the songs are awash on a sea of squall.Kim Gordon is a major presence, with four songs: Pattern Recognition, Kim Gordon & the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream, Dude Ranch Nurse, and I Love You Golden Blue. The latter two are especially impressive. Lee gets his standard one track, Paper Cup Exit, and as usual he makes the best of his limited time -- it is yet another Beat hipster epic.The other five tracks are Thurston's: Unmade Bed, Dripping Dream, Stones, New Hampshire, and Peace Attack. Also as usual, Thurston's songs are the center of gravity of the album. His singing and lyrics continue in the mellower, hippy-esque mode he has tended toward at least since A THOUSAND LEAVES, and that's fine because it is counter-balanced by the harsher-edged guitar sound that stamps SY as a product of the '80s and not the '60s.I saw Sonic Youth live in Prospect Park in Brooklyn in the summer of 2009, and it was a great show -- I'm glad to have seen them again before they broke up. A THOUSAND LEAVES

I love this album, and overall, it's a fantastic sounding vinyl. I'm giving it five stars on those merits alone, and because I can't bring myself to give it less.. even though. Yes, even though both copies I received had issues on Pattern Recognition. It sounded like distortion, maybe something else, that would come and go throughout the song. My first copy was actually better than the second, but both exhibited the problem. Maybe it was just a poor batch, as I've heard nothing but good things about this pressing, and every other song sounded great. I'll try again later I suppose.

I'm someone who thinks that the band's three CDs previous to this one range between bad and not especially good. But, I do like this one. The songs are structures and there's less the feel of loose lazy strumming. They worked up some good songs that have a nice clean rock sound. It sounds to me like a culmination of what they'd been doing for a while.The two records after this one were even more focused, and I like them even better. This one grew on me slowly, but it did grow on me. In the end it's a nice slightly ambitious record by a confident and adventurous band.