Goo

Great album with a good handful of songs that are extra great, like Tunic, Kool Thing, Disappearer and Titanium Expose

I enjoyed large portions of this. Then there were the droning, industrialized, cacophanous bits which I liked a lot less.

I didn't really get much out of this. Energetic and trashy, but I know many people love that.

So good

This was fine; not really anything to write home about. I don't think I'd listen to it again?

Really weird. Maybe I'm just not in the cool 90s kid target audience. Tracks to Track: Dirty Boots

2 decent songs and the rest crap. i have struggled with sonic youth since i was a kid. just don't get it

Don't know why I thought they sounded so different. New fave

A pretty solid album, I really liked the first half for sure! Fell off at the weird aspect at the end, but still a low 4 stars.

Great Alt rock with a lot of listening diversity

This is what I think of pretentious. Not my thing right now.

Sonic Youth and I have an odd, admirable history together. My first introduction to them was from an episode of The Simpsons that also featured The Smashing Pumpkins, Cypress Hill and Peter Frampton. The alternative 90s; what a time to be alive! SY did the Simpsons theme for the end credits of that episode and I was blown away by the sounds they were able to get out of their equipment. It sounded edgy and "kool" and it had attitude, real attitude, man! But for some reason in the years after when I tried to get into their music, only a couple things hit for me. Daydream Nation, which I will further discuss when I get to it, took me a long time to crack. I feel like this album was the same for me. A few songs hit, and the rest, I didn't get it. All it was for a very long time was Tunic (Kim Gordon's ethereal, dark tribute to Karen Carpenter) and Kool Thing (the big hit). Then again, I was a young high school kid and my musical tolerance wasn't completely built up to take on elaborate noise-rock compositions. Today, I have sensed a massive change at age 19. Sonic Youth was a band that had this sort of sonic genius. To a typical fly, some of these sounds they go for can be quite unbearable and hard to sit through. To me, it's art when I hear the outro of Mote. They use dissonance to their advantage to make their music sound rustier and more urgent. It's the Branca trademark taken to the airwaves. While I don't find it as compelling as Daydream Nation, Goo is the statement they needed to make at this point in time. It was their major label debut, and to widen their audience, they had to keep up their same tricks but freshen them up for the kids. I feel that they succeeded though I would have Lee sing more. He's my favorite vocalist of the three that do sing. I'm not completely sold on everything this band has done (All I really have is some of EVOL/Sister, big fan of Washing Machine, Murray St (?)) but I appreciate what they were for music when they were around (8/10, 5/5 on this scale).

One of the best sonic youth albums. Kool thing is definitely their best song, but Tunic (RIP to the queen Karen Carpenter), Mary-Christ, Dirty Boots, My Friend Goo are all solid too. A little weak in the second half of the album

Most of this was 3 stars for me, some pretty annoying vocals and noise but the peaks and valleys evened out to a 3 I suppose.

Oh, great, another Sonic Youth album. How thrilling. This one has the usual mix of half-baked experimentalism and intermittent flashes of catchy moments, but it’s mostly just business as usual for the band. At least "Dirty Boots" has a decent chord progression to latch onto, and "Disappearer" provides some pleasant indie rock vibes with its melodic guitar lines and a Lou Reed-ish vocal performance. But then there’s that stuff: "Tunic (Song for Karen)" — in which the band imagines Karen Carpenter in heaven, singing from her point of view. Creepy? Yeah, a little. "Kool Thing" might’ve been interesting if the dis track about LL Cool J weren’t so smug and grating. So, here we are again: another record that thinks it’s more profound than it is. Some good moments, sure, but too many indulgences.

I was previously familiar with Sonic Youth, but not this album. This was a pretty interesting listen. It is taking alternative rock pretty far into noise territory, but without harshness (ok maybe a little, but it's not that much or that bad). They have figured out how to use dissonance melodically, as strange as that sounds. I enjoyed hearing this and I would listen again but I might not be in a rush to do so.

Kind of hit or miss for me. But a good album overall.

Solid up until My Friend Goo, it started to all mesh into a similar sound after but stayed listenable at least.

Didn’t enjoy

gooood

I liked this a lot! Loud and noisy but in the ways that I appreciate.

Pretty representative of 90s alt rock. Couple good songs. Couple to screechy for me.

Not my bag

I love the sound of Sonic Youth albums. The layered, jangly, distorted guitars. The punkish spoken word like delivery. The driving, pulsating rhythm. Another one of those bands who just has a sound and vibe, distinguishable within a few seconds of hitting play. I cannot recall if this was the first SY album I heard back in high school or not... as I immersed myself in their albums all at once. But Goo is a classic Sonic Youth record in a discography full of classic American Alternative Punk Rock albums.

I love Sonic Youth

Alright, I really only got into these guys last year. Especially with Daydream Nation and this album - so this easily is 4 stars. But on the other hand, I think them having 5 albums on this list is a bit too much still. But I would add this one easily. A very interesting noisy listen, love Kool Thing and Dirty Boots

It was good because it’s early punk. Just not my daily jam.

Bit bland

Raucous and chaotic at times, but it's counterbalanced by actual songs, riffs, and melodies. It's a fine balancing act, but it's done really well.

118/1001 Sonic Youth - Goo Heard before? ✅ Revisit? ✅ Hell yeah! This was the first Sonic Youth album I listened to in full. Is it their best? No. But I love it regardless. Dirty Boots as an opener absolutely slaps, Kool Thing is a phenomenal song. Yes, the second half is weaker, but doesn't detract from the whole too much.

Wonderfull, a great álbum to listen in the car

No my favorite album. I feel like it sounded exactly like the last sonic youth album

Overall, it'd give it a 3. There are some songs I would skip though.

Couldn’t name an album or song by the band. Always thought I’d get around to listening one day and today was the day. Not too shabby.

Okay it is finally time for me to return to Sonic Youth to talk about my infamous hatred of Goo and how I will never understand why people go so crazy for it. Sonic Youth as a band is one that really perplexes me because they are so well renowned and yet so fucking snobby at the same time. Most of the songs here are either just fine or are barely good at that and I will stand on that point firmly. This is a pretty plain and generic Alt Rock album that doesn't offer anything to it of note other than some kick ass vocals from Kim Gordon and occasionally good guitar parts, but everything else feels so lacking for some reason. I don't know how this album managed to grow even further off me in the 3 years since I last heard this in full but that is truly impressive. I don't think I'll ever understand what people see in this album but I will gladly not sugarcoat my opinion just because others seem to rave about this project.

Pretty good.

One of my all time favourite records! An absolute classic, with arguably the most iconic album cover of all time. I never know how you describe Sonic Youth, but I think this record is probably a good gateway into their avant garde / noise / punky ways. Strangely for me it was the song ‘Tunic’ that made me pay attention to this when I first heard it. Probably the least scuzzy song on here. But even now when I hear it I tend to stop what I’m doing and listen to it. It’s just so strange, like a ghost singing it back. Which I’m guessing is the intention, but they really nail it. The rest of the album is class too, and I doubt there’s a better opener than Dirty Boots. The lyrics and background to Kool Thing are ace too. That was one of the pivotal songs for me that helped me sway to the left in life. Great record, ridiculously good band.

Definitely prefer this to daydream nation, not sure about the other one. Can't quite remember it though I said it reminded me of kool thing, so probably safe to say go is my favourite sonic youth album. It's got this unsettling atonal sound throughout which I'm a fan of. It feels like it pushes past eccentric to just random at points but I was largely enjoying it. Hugely influential on lots of my favourite bands, I'm not sure id say I am definitely a nailed on sonic youth fan but I understand why people are.

I enjoyed Dirty Boots and Dissapearer. On balance, a weak 4. Some generic noise, and overall I didn't enjoy the female singer's voice as much as the male.

Never heard this album before, but have enjoyed the other sonic youth albums we've had so far. Great cover art. Like the other sonic youth albums, i wasn't convinced by it all initially, thought some was very good. But quite different to daydream nation in parts. Gave it another listen and it grew on me. Think my favourites were dirty boots, Kool thing and mote 4 and I'll be back

"My friend Good goes P.U."

The album is ok, still not my band at all

This is a perfectly average good album. I'm sure there's plenty to read into this but unfortunately I didn't get much on my listen. I will say that they go all over the place on this album, some good, some shit. It's better that way than average all the way through. A perfect 5/10 but I will round up.

I guess this was more of a big deal at the time, but I feel like I'm a touch too young for Sonic Youth in general to make the kind of impact it did on a lot of my barely older Gen X friends. I like when Kim sings on this, and I like the relatively raw sound of it, but things like the middle and end of "Mildred Pierce" just sound like shit. For all the platitudes of being pioneers in the experimental guitar department there isn't much in this that wasn't done by a lot of shittier punk bands at the time and before. Maybe that's it - they brought that raw and feedback filled sound in to alternative rock. Nothing I really will remember about this album, but maybe I just lack the context. It's fine, I'm sure we'll get the older stuff at some point on here.

I like it. Very full on workout or driving music

So sick of the 90’s electric guitar

I understand why Goo is important — it’s noisy, experimental, and helped shape an era — but it’s really not for me. There are a few moments of energy that break through (“Kool Thing” and “Dirty Boots”), but too much of it feels self-indulgent, like noise for its own sake. The two-minute feedback stretch at the end of “Mote” was my breaking point. I respect what they were going for, but I won’t be revisiting this one.

Enjoyed half of that a lot.

An energetic album, not really my style 2/5

I’ve been listening to this since it came out. It’s a perfect record and I love it.

Better than I remember it. Groovy, discordant cool guy music. Disaffected, chain smoking hot girl music. 3/5

The raw emotion and energy of the entire album is infectious.

Really poor.

Infinitely better than the other Sonic Youth album we've already had, E.V.O.L., but that really doesn't say much. Pretty unremarkable and had to skip through a couple songs as they were unlistenable.

Broadly excellent

There are some really long, drawn out instrumental sections that are just guitar screeching or feedback or just slightly unpleasant sounds near the end or middle or bridges of the songs. I really like the opening song Dirty Boots where it was more instrumental, the guy was singing. Don’t get me wrong I’m not sexist, but the female vocalist sucked imo because she just spoke and it was very obvious what the song title was because she would just say the title for the chorus and constantly remind us what the song is called through out with her talk singing.

good album cover, good album, good songs Will I listen to again: 100%

Some nice progressions and layering. But it felt pretty average overall, not that interesting.

Sonic Youth my beloved

this scratches my brain just right for the adhd

The first track is pretty good. The second track sounds similar. Then track 3 sounds kinda the same too. Not much variety here. Some of the lyrics are just downright nonsensical. It’s fine, nothing special.

They could not be bothered with actually trying.

Meh, there must be something I'm missing about Sonic Youth. Folks (usually around my age) rave about them, bands cite them as influences, but they just leave me cold. Maybe I'm in the wrong: I suck

I'm not sure how to feel about this one. The noisy guitars and general rawness is good... but the vocals just suck. Its either a disinterested woman singing or the whiney vocals of a man. Makes most songs a chore to get through, when it could be so much better. After 1989, I was really hoping for a decent palette cleanser. Interesting enough stuff here, just not well executed or relistenable.

Good album need to listen to more sonic youth

This is just one of the coolest albums ever honestly. Unlike any other noise rock album, because it's just so fricking groovy. Like how are the rhythms consistently so amazing? Just makes me wanna move my body so much. Even Tunic, which is a heartbreakingly sad song is somehow kinda dance-able. And the guitars on this are just *mwah*. The riffs are so amazingly sinister and are just composed so well with the other elements of the songs, it's pretty incredible. The way the bass and main guitar slowly drift away from each other and eventually explode on the first song is just one of the coolest things ever. And the outro to that song is so ethereal. Tunic is just an emotional powerhouse, crazy intense with completely haunting choruses. The crazy chord progressions and evolving rhythms of Disappearer is just so incredibly fascinating and masterful. The constantly intensifying progression of Mote combined with that noisy, drone-y outro makes it feel like the musical equivalent of going to sleep after a long day of everything pissing you off, and the closing track is probably their most cathartic song in its own weird way. I also love how despite only being from 1990, some songs capture the 90s essence so well - be that Kool Thing, the really funny My Friend Goo which is kind of a silly portrayal of 90s teens or Mary-Christ which is about dating a punker priest. This album is just a masterclass of song structuring and arrangements, backed up by incredible songwriting and just a ton of swagger and cool guy attitude.

I like the name. Not exactly my type of music or one that I could say I would have listened to before but not bad! I liked seeing how much Radek enjoyed this.

Very Kool - must check out more of their stuff !

von melodiös bis chaos.

Manchmal erträgt man es besser manchmal weniger. So ist das halt mit dem Indie Rock

Great early alternative album

Not bad but not memorable.

The second Sonic Youth album i’ve gotten which has blown me away, it’s quite similar to dirty as it’s got some grungey influences to it but it mainly focusses on the noisy alt-rock sound with amazing guitars, it’s also not as raw because of this which I think is most notable in the more quieter drum sound and the blend of rough distorted guitars with the more cleaner sounding ones, it’s simply great noise with a good message behind it all done amazingly well. The fact this comes right before dirty as well is incredible, although I slightly prefer dirty. Favourites: all (Tunic maybe mot as it was very much based on talking but it had such a great instrumental behind it). Overall, 9/10.

Another massively enjoyable slice of Sonic Youth, who I think (don't check the ratings, I've no idea if this is true) I've enjoyed more with each listen. Anyway, this one was beautifully balanced between loud and quiet, with big hooks, great vocals and a good deal of light and shade. Lovely stuff.

Not bad. I’ve consistently maintained that these guys want to be cooler than they want to make good music.

Goo(d)

I preferred dirty, felt like the whole " i am cool and live in nyc and smoke cigarettes" vibe was much more palpable on this one for me Fav song: Titanium Expose

Chill rock

★★★½

Gave me straight up anxiety

Definitely one of the more interesting bands on the list that has more than one entry.

I give whoever writes this book criticism on occasion for having so many British bands represented, and draw attention to the failure to add some super obvious bands that are more deserving from elsewhere, notably the United States, naturally. That being said, when I found out that American Indie Rock band Sonic Youth of all bands has a whopping FIVE albums on this list, I was really, reeeeeeally confused. Why on Earth do they need to have 5?? They’re exceptionally average. Just monumentally, aggressively ok. 5?? Why?? So many other deserving bands don’t have any at all. Are these guys huge in the UK and that’s why they’re on here so much?? I don’t know. I already listened to Dirty, and this is comparatively better. In my review for that, I also mentioned how average it was. I’m likely to mention it as well for the other 3. With all that being said, this album has their big hit, and likely the only song of theirs I’m going to recognize, “Kool Thing.” That one I’ll admit is a certified banger. I still like the male singers voice better, “My Friend Goo” is proof enough of that, it’s unlistenable garbage, and yet “Kool Thing” is the exception to the rule and ends up being the best song on the album by far. There’s a ton of down time and filler here as well which is all just inoffensive noise and adds to my overall reasoning in why this is like a 3.65/5.

Ugh, people talking in songs, tunic got on my nerves. The guitar stuff made me migraine worse. Mildred Pierce was trash. 2* Highlights: kool thing

not my favourite sonic youth album

I've heard of this band, not really sure if I have listen to much of their stuff. I am aware of their stature. Not my style of music.

I feel like the cool kid listening to Sonic Youth. I liked this. I’m a sucker for distorted guitar and lots of fuzz.

It low-key makes me want to turn my body inside out. It feels like they're trying to be edgy but they suck bc the vocals aren't that great and the guitars are (I assuming) purposefully out of tune. It just feels like it's too on the nose.

Lots of great sound here and love the energy, but it's let down by its weird pretentiousness at times. Don't need to have several minutes of noise and feedback at the end of a song, this was true of many tracks. My friend Goo is just really cringe.

Enjoyed this - lovely slab of noise rock. A fan of guitar interplay and oodles of fuzz. Marvellous

I like Sonic Youth, and this a good album.

Liked

Velvet Underground for the 90s. Can't deny the influence and "coolness" of this, but I would personally be bummed if any of this showed up on a playlist. Just not into the experience of listening to it.

A longtime favorite of mine

Tolles Album, immer wieder gerne.

My fourth(!) album by Sonic Youth on this list. I'm still tired. The group seems to struggle in deciding whether they want to commit to a tonal or an atonal sound. Tunic, My Friend Goo, and Scooter & Jinx are their three primarily atonal tracks (the latter being just a minute long), and they're fine – but only as artifacts of the album. Tunic and My Friend Goo have particularly terrible singing and it's a bit difficult to listen to them. And yes, I'm aware that that's the point – but that doesn't make it enjoyable, or necessarily good music. The song Tunic reminds me of the Velvet Underground's The Gift from their sophomore record, but simply worse (darn). Throughout the album, lots of distorted, echoey guitar, paying homage to a lot of 80s and late 70s hard/stadium rock. I do think Sonic Youth pulls this sound off a little better. The interplay between the two vocalists, like in Titanium Expose, is actually one of my favourite parts, and I wish they'd utilised it more. Great strong sound in Kool Thing. It's almost mainstream-poppy in the way it uses riffs. Sounds like the Pixies, or *maybe* an earlier version of Radiohead's noodlage on their first two records. Mildred Pierce is a high point too. It's essentially a very (and I mean very) well done punk instrumental. Foreboding, atmospheric, and yet still very energising. Good stuff. Only two minutes as well. Dirty Boots, the album opener, is also a standout, though I have trouble articulating why. The rise and fall of textures/dynamics, maybe. And the stupid but excellent chorus delivery. Dirty boots. Dirty boots, baby. Dirty boots! Unfortunately, the rest of the album is inconsistent (quality-wise) at best. And I only have so many stars in my sack of stars. 3/5 Key tracks: Dirty Boots, Kool Thing, Mildred Pierce

Meh. 2/5

Every year I revisit this album to give it another try and it’s still mid

Not really my thing but Mote and Disappearer were good.

This is such a great album but sometimes it drags on a bit too long

Enjoyed it. Surprisingly accessible for Sonic Youth - particularly liked the songs with Kim on vocals.

Goo This is the only SY album I had heard before doing this, and its my favourite of the ones we have had, perhaps due to a bit of familiarity, perhaps due to Kool Thing being excellent, but perhaps because it is just better than the others, with the artisness, noise rock and drones being better corralled into more succinct and enjoyable songs. Dirty Boots and Tunic are a great opening pair, Dirty Boots off kilter catchy melody is nice, and I like Kim Deal’s dispassionate vocals on Tunic are excellent. Mary-Christ sounds similar to songs from other SY albums and it’s fine, but I enjoy how it signposts its riff at the end before the excellent Kool Thing, the standout track. I like My Friend Goo as well, another oddly catchy melody, and another slightly distant Kim Gordon vocal. Disappear is nice, that riff is great and Titanium Expose I like too - a bit of controlled noise-chaos with some excellent riffing. Despite this being my favourite SY album I don’t think it's quite a 4, more like a 3.8 or 3.9, i.e. a high 3. And cherish this one, really savour it, there’s only one more Sonic Youth album after this. 🦔🦔🦔 Playlist submission: Kool Thing

As the album progresses it's clear they haven't polished the usual garage-slacker approach, including the introspective, emo vocals, and they haven't really sharpened many edges. This all sits between ungrounded experiment and the 90s alt-rock boom. When a bit more thought is put into the composition it really is good, like 'Disappearer' which has the atmosphere of doom alt-rockers like Joy Division and Interpol. The Youths are good at doing disposable though and their Joy Divison-adjacent 'Mildred Pearce' is enjoyable and entirely throwaway at the same time, as is the disposable power-pop of 'Mary-Christ'. I found the ambience of much of 'Daydream Nation' rather compelling, tightening up the ideas on Evol. I don't favour this album over that, but it was a very listenable album. It has some great moments, but whether it's that different from the other Youth albums we've listened to to merit inclusion here, is highly questionable.

i wonder how music like this is produced. probably more off the cuff than traditional songwriting. id guess whatever problem in the state of the world or in their personal lives which has a reflection on the human condition but mainly their own emotions would form the basis of the message they're trying to convey. let me find some of evidence of this. nah fuck it I'm too lazy. but they're also kind of above it all a little. I liked Kool Thing. I liked the distorted guitars and shit like too. This review is about as cohesive as the messaging in this album. The end.

Music to drink a gallon of hot, black coffee and smoke 2 packs.

Probably very cool for its time, but it didn't really tickle me.

Sound album.

Hollow, bloodless noodling. -1 star for using child serial killer imagery to be "cool" Apologise to Nardwuar you monsters. Not even Chuck D could save this poo

https://musicboard.app/supermyssk/review/album/goo/sonic-youth/

Goo’s reputation as the ultimate sellout is a little ridiculous in light of what they delivered to DGC...just not on this album. There’s a whole thesis that could be written on the white person cool affect, its intersection with and borrowing of Black culture, what it achieves for inspiring/devaluing subsequent art, how much of a cynical con it can be, etc. Ultimately, Sonic Youth the band just has never been that interesting to me aside from feeling like I instinctively knew what Moore and Ranaldo were up to with noise. It’s like meeting a twin you never knew you had, seeing they have the same back of their hands as you, and...well, what more is there? I saw them a few times in the early 90s, usually by accident, and if you asked me where I got my early guitar ideas from, I could probably reference them in a general sense, but I was not spending a lot of time listening to Goo, Daydream, EVOL, and Dirty. It just kinda happened that way. Goo has one of my favourite SY songs, which is Ranaldo’s Mote. I like a lot of later Moore and Gordon tunes (especially as she began singing with more melody), but Mote’s still the one. But also gets undercut by the noise denouement. On that note, Daydream and maybe Schizophrenia aside, what cultural purchase does SY have in the mid 2020s? As people, Kim’s status seems like the fair-minded truth teller, wise elder, emboldened post-divorce, but her solo effort only went so far. Thurston has been up his own ass since at least his first solo record and the other two show up from time to time guesting on tracks, sometimes keeping on good terms with canceled types long after that was in any way a fashionable conceit. Trail of Dead could rightly be criticized as a Daydream rip-off band, but they found their own way by Source Tags. That “Kool Thing” is...well, a bit confused makes a lot of sense from the intersectional perspective but maybe these folks weren’t all that smart? It’s a very white feminist take and deserves respect but also...gets some power dynamics and broader understanding not only wrong, but just doesn’t seem to care and that’s maybe the SY story in miniature, or at least the Kim story. And a personal sidenote, Chuck D providing the “Black man voice” happens only because he was in the same studio recording Fear of a Black Planet (I guess the feature spot door did not swing both ways), an album I knew about long before giving SY the time of day.

Yuh

First time listening all the way through from top to bottom and have mixed thoughts. The first half is where the album shines, “Tunic (Song for Karen)” and “Kool Thing” are the best tracks on the album, no doubt thanks to Kim Gordon’s distant, eerie vocals and that hypnotic bass line with the steady groove which was a hit with my toddler. However, things start to slip towards the midway point and some of the songs felt like filler and, despite the noise, quite flat. Overall a mixed bag, couldn’t listen to it often aside from a few tracks so giving it a 3. Good, but overrated.

It felt good to finish this album, but there were mixed feelings throughout. Part of me has heard this band a hundred times before. I'm standing at the back of a dingy venue (and not because there is no room up the front, there's plenty of room!) holding a pint, pretending I am enjoying myself. The band has put together a series of droney/dischordy riffs together, but with little melody (or at least what I can hear, the PA is crap. So is the vocal mix on this record...). The band ends, and I try to find a part I like in the set to compliment them on. Now, Sonic Youth are very progressive in this regard, and there's some cool stuff. They beat 'Tritone' and a selection of bands of that nature that I have since forgotten. But, amongst the dischord and feedback intros, there's not a lot of melody to keep me entertained. And if there is, it's inconsistent. On the matter feedback intros, there seemed to be a lot. Too many? I know that Sonic Youth have gone on and have an extensive back catalogue, and they are a band that come up in list of influences for lots of bands I like. Yes, I did enjoy the album, but I'm not sure what part. I won't be diving into their discography. It's like the TV show 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' or 'Curb Your Enthusiasm', there's just too much, I'm too far behind and not everything is that easy to enjoy. 3 Stars.

This album is like a new girl starting at your school. She is dressed in black jeans and a black hoodie, with a denim vest over the top. She has hi-top Doc Martens on, and safety pins in her vest. Some of them are there to attach anti-war patches onto the back of her jacket. She doesn't seem to have washed her hair in a while, and she definitely isn't wearing makeup. You are not sure why, but you are infatuated with her. You talk to her, and she makes it instantly clear that she isn't interested in your sweet-talking and bullshit. After a while, you manage to convince her that you also don't care about the cool kids at school, and that you understand the bigger picture of life. You hang out more and more, but she never lets you make a move or anything. This goes on for a while until you start to think, maybe this girl is actually pretty annoying? Like, yea she is hot and you appreciate her anti-establishment confidence. But at the same time she does carry on a lot about how the underlying theme of Star Wars is the religious indoctrination of Luke Skywalker and you just want to tell her to give it a rest.

Some good tracks hidden amoung the noise. And there seems to be plenty of noise for the sake of noise. Needed someone in the studio who had not drunk the "hip" Coolaide to maybe ask some production questions amd cut back a few things.

Forgettable punk / rock

Further evidence that rock music peaked in the early 90s.

Fun listen - 3.5/5

You know I’ve never been a sonic youth guy but I really enjoyed this. I think the Kim Gordon songs r my favorite. A little punky for me but I still fucked with it. Sometimes the punky stuff sacrifices melody writing which is totally ok but that will always lose me. I need melodiesssss or hookssss

Goo goo goo. Goo goo goo.

It has very good songs, but overall it falls flat and it's not that interesting besides these 2-3 songs

Jag gillar inte USA och då pratar jag inte generellt eller ens om den orangea freakshowen i första hand utan om musik, i synnerhet gitarrmusik Jag är anglofil, punkt. Utan att fastna i något alltför långt resonemang handlar det om att amerikansk musik vill verka vara tuff, ha attityd, vara ROCK. Brittisk musik har ett annat utgångsläge som utgår från POP, den har en bokhylla och en garderob, ett visst mått av förfining om man så vill. Någonting bortanför hur tufft en gitarr kan låta. Jag målar med den stora penseln här förstås, det finns massvis med motsägelser här och en mycket mer nyanserad bild. Jag säger heller inte att SY är ett obeläst band, snarare är dom motsatsen men dom präglas liksom många andra amerikanska band av attityd, av att vara tuffa och i förlängningen av rock. Den här skivan är en uppvisning i det, den är jättetuff, har jättecoola gitarrer men är helt menlös. Det finns nåt oklädsamt och ibland lite löjeväckande med det. "Disapperaer" är den enda låt jag tycker är bra den har ett lite annat tilltal.Däremot är alla låtar med Kim Gordon på sång jättedåliga, de är bara tomma skal av attityd. SY hör till dom sämsta i klassen, men eet finns ännu värre exempel.Jag kräver lite mer än en tuff gitarr av min musik. De må vara historiens kanske coolaste band men ledsen jag kan inte ge det här godkänt ens. Lyssna hellre på My Boody Valentine - Isn't anything, The Bear Quartet - Penny century

Bitvis rätt svårtuggad materia, denna mix av punkrock och dronermusik. Gillar Sonic youth bäst i låtar som Dirty boots och Kool thing, där de är både melodiösa och mothårs. Bra skivomslag - som ser ut som musiken låter.

Skrammel, dist å rundgång e coolt! Eller? Kanske 1990, men idag? Blev aldrig av att på riktigt lyssnade på Sonic Youth på 90-talet (eller 80-talet) trots att de borde ha passat som fod i hose. Nu vet jag inte riktigt? Det indierockas på men blir sällan intressant. Låtmaterial är helt enkelt för svagt. Har säkert varit en viktig inspirationskälla för många indieband som blev mycket bättre. Men för min del räcker det inte till. Felas 2:a var stark. Denna rör sig i andra ändan av skalan.

Jag har aldrig tagit mig tid att lyssna in mig på sonic youth. Jag hade förväntat mig mer oljud. Tycker det låter som rätt ordinär indierock. Det kanske inte är rätt val av album? Hitills verkar listan vara väldigt inriktad på kommersiella genombrott. Dirty boots och Titanium expose gillar jag. Cinderella's big score kanske är mer intressant än bra. Jag tar gärna emot tips om det är andra album med sonic youth som man ska lyssna istället.

I don't think I've listened to this exact kind of music before. It's kind of punk, but also not really punk. And I don't know if that makes it better or worse. It was good enough that I didn't mind listening to most of the tracks, and the ones that I enjoyed less weren't terrible. It's not in the high end of 3, but I also don't think it's quite a 2 Standouts Tunic (Song For Karen) 3/5

Great album, they're on top of their game here - I love Dirty Boots, Tunic & Kool Thing - used to use that all the time in Spin class

I’m a huge fan! The guitar sound is epic. The drums rapid fire is wildly tight and precise. Then add in their vocals, lyrics. It takes me back in time. It’s a place.

The songs have more distinct personalities this time out. There's still plenty of noise to go around. Open chords ring out. Middle eights meander for minutes at a time and often never return - but not quite as much as they had previously. This albums distills what they do well into manageable and digestible amounts. And just enough Kim.

Really liked it for the most part, best one so far, high highs, really like kool thing.

it's alright, easy ish to listen to. a lot of rhythm guitar

I come away with the same conclusions as i did with the last two Sonic Youth albums. I respect them from afar and think Kim Gordon specifically is excellent. "Tunic (Song for Karen)" didnt necessitate any research to know this song is about Karen Carpenter and the hardships she endured with her image, being a woman drummer, etc. Really nice tribute. "Kool Thing" was a really unique song I dont think i'll ever hear another one quite like it. Lastly, I liked the instrumental on "Disappearer" the best. 3/5

Noise for noise sake. I liked the guitar parts only a little bit, but the lyrics really turned this down for me. 2/5. I can see the vision but it just doesnt land in any capacity.

Not a huge fan but an enjoyable album. They have their sound and it is their sound and if you don’t like their sound then your gonna wanna find a different sound. 3.5/ 5

Goo is all over the place. Off key singing (intentional or just bad?) on a few numbers. Weak rhymes and noise on a few others. Album would be improved if they cut Mildred Pierce, Scooter And Jinx, and the last four minutes of Mote (which is the best cut on the album.) The Song For Karen Carpenter helps get Goo on the 1001 Must Hear List. And is well timed since we just heard from her. This one comes in at (2.1*s) Goo smells P.U.

Never really gave this band a chance and still probably won't after listening to Goo. Half the album is alright, other half is a bit of a hap-hazard noise fest. I liked the first and last tracks...middle was uninspiring. Not the worst record but skippable. 2.03 stars.

Not sure what happened on this one. The drum and guitar work is actually pretty damn good at times from a distance. Unfortunately there is something about the overarching style of the album that didn't work for me. Every time I started to dig one of the tracks I was immediately met by a section of obnoxious noise jams or overly reverberated scratchy backgrounds. Something about the female vocals came off really lazy and blase which also bugged me. It seems like there is a good album buried somewhere in here but it's covered in too much goo for me to enjoy it. I'll admit there are segments of this album that I was into. However, there are also sections of this album that I really disliked. In the end it was enough of a turn off for me to want to shelve this album. Not sure if Sonic Youth has something else that would interest me but if this is their best album I would like skip the rest of their collection. 1.42 stars

“Old transgressive habits die hard, I guess, just like punk supposedly did, way back when Sonic Youth deigned to pitch and shift their rock and roll to a decidedly bigger demographic and fuck it up for everyone. And fuck it up they did, thank God.” — Pitchfork, David Raposa https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/7349-goo-deluxe-edition/

i feel like they have crazier albums than this but i still like it

listenable.

I really like some of the songs further in the album, but so many of them left no impact for me.

Drittes Album von denen, dritte Enttäuschung. Ich kann mich jetzt nicht mehr so richtig an die anderen beiden Alben erinnern, die schon dran waren, aber das hier scheint mir etwas besser zu gefallen. Trotzdem habe ich mir oft gewünscht, dass es hoffentlich bald endet. 2 – Respektiere ich, aber nicht meins 🤷‍♂️ Ich sehe, warum das Album wichtig ist oder geschätzt wird, aber es hat mich nicht gepackt.

Did not like it very much

An absolute classic for me! Daydream Nation was my first SY album, and I couldn't be more thrilled when this album came out, more catchy, consistent and more room for Kim Gordon's songs was what made this album even better! 5/5

Confessions of a teenage try-hard: I wore a shirt with this cover on it all the time. I did not own this record. Sonic Youth was just a band I was trying very hard to like, because they were cooool. To be fair, I did have a couple other CDs of theirs, but the art on this one was just, you know, cooool. The point, I guess, is that Sonic Youth is very mich an acquired taste. Getting into them felt like work. But hey, now I like them so I guess it paid off? Anyway, I eventually taped this off somebody, because the 90s. My opinion of Goo hasn't really changed since then. Not as good as Daydream Nation (not much is), not as good as Dirty, but probably better than the rest of their discography. It's like they figured out how to insert music into the noise. Somewhat. Look, your mileage is going to vary. Did you spend your formative years acquiring a taste for noisy music? You'll have a good time. I wish I still had that shirt, though.

pretty good! didn't feel as noisy as i wanted it to, but still pretty good

There’s a real sense of driving urgency in this record. It feels like it should soundtrack a dystopian racing film. SY still hold onto their weirdo sonic experimentation, but (very) importantly, they leave space to rock. This is peak Sonic Youth.

sonic youth is a band i always heard about but never took the time to listen. I liked the fact that it felt your classic hard rock album but with a nice experimental twist to it. The songs are catchy but also kinda grotesque and raw in a really interesting way.

Erm cool ig

I feel pressured to like Sonic Youth...but I just can't.

I have seen the album cover for this dozens of times because i would often type in "goo" to my browser's address bar and then press Enter and sometimes I would stroke the key (no homo) before the browser autofilled "google.com" and the browser would return this Sonic Youth album as the result every time. Never listened to it but was always curious just because I saw it so often. It's good.

I am way too enamored with the early-90s alt stuff. Was bordering on a 4 but went with 3.

Yeah, I think Sonic Youth is not for me

Still not into Sonic Youth. Maybe if Kim Gordon sang every song I’d be more into them?

I remember a few years ago I went thru Sonic Youth's discography and just really enjoyed their music, but most particularly I had an obsession with Goo that probably lasted a few months, I had the album and some songs on a loop basically. But after a while the album, and really all of SY's music kinda fell to the wayside for me, I would occasionally listen to them but I never really truly felt like listening to their music the same way I would return to some of my favorite music and feel like I was back to some kind of normalcy with it. Even more I kept forgetting more and more how their songs went, which granted makes sense for music you listen to once and basically never again but even the albums I listened to a lot (except for Evol but I'll talk abt it when I get it) I just forgot the way the songs went and just remember very few parts about them. That feeling over time made me realize that maybe I am not as huge on Sonic Youth as I thought I was and I think this current listen of Goo cemented that feeling even more. Although I don't doubt that I might feel differently for other albums of theirs, I think the fact that Goo felt like such dud after thinking I still loved the album left me disappointed, because suddenly all the sounds in it... well were the same but I didn't find them nearly as interesting or exciting like I once did, some choices wound up annoying me more than it helped their songs. I think part of the problem is that the sort of 90s "2cool4you" or general gen x we don't give a shit attitude feels very played out and just expected in a lot of instances? I mean things like Tunic's whole section with Kim Gordon singing as Karen Carpenter ironically saying goodbye to Hollywood and hello to all the big musicians in heaven or the Chuck D feature in Kool Thing, they feel like they are there for a half ironic half sincere reason but in the end the don't feel like they add much to the songs beyond being The Things that you remember as opposed to idk the instrumentals or something. The Tunic vocals specially felt very weirdly tacked on the song because Kim's vocals just feel too loud compared to the instrumentals instead of this ghostly apparition that she is supposed to be thematically. I think another problem is that yeah they have a lot of cool guitar riffs and things going on in the music which sound like the best shit ever, but then these get lost in the shuffle of everything else that's going on in their music and wind up becoming aimless, like... Dirty Boots for example has one of the better riffs but I can't seem to recall how it went and the only thing I remember is the stupid "I GOT SOME DIRTY BOOTS" line which after it made the song worse or Dissappearer which was one of my absolute favorite songs, it ebbs and flows in a cool way but it also feels like it's all over the place that I can barely place what the song is going for by the middle even if it's enjoyable. That aimlessness is fine obviously, I won't come here and say that Sonic Youth's signature style is also their biggest issue because c'mon, but I do feel like it is a double edge sword where they can write some truly iconic riffs and songs and other times they are cool but not at all memorable, with the only memorable bits being the very part of the song that I really wish weren't there... It's tough because I don't wanna sit here and pretend like this isn't worth people's time but like... I feel like there's 90s bands that were able to embody cool and write songs that felt more memorable, or hell even the Sonic Youth alikes sometimes did SY better because they had more restraint whereas I don't think SY ever felt like they had to have some more executive direction to their music. Is it good? I guess so yeah, do I love it anymore? Certainly not, it's on the level of Amnesiac by Radiohead being a disappointment to me

Sonic Youth were bullies to Nardwuar and I don't appreciate bullying. But I will judge this album on my own with a clear mind. I do like wall of sounds on some songs. I don't know if it is their best album or what for me it sound good and I like it. Fav. tracks Tunic Kool Thing Mote My Friend Goo Cinderella's Big Score 3,5 to 4/5

29/1089 Dirty Boots is a fun and edgy rock n roll moment to introduce the album. Really loving the style of Tunic, her non chalant vocals over the intense guitarring is really cool. i love when songs are given space to breathe and become almost ambient and Mote is a good example of that. I think i need a second listen at some point to get the second half of the album properly because it started to merge but i really enjoyed listening to this one faves: Tunic, Dirty Boots, Cinderella Big Score least faves: Scooter & Jinx 4 stars 72/100

Cool sin necesidad de aparentar, Goo fue el primer álbum de Sonic Youth para una gran discográfica. Y aunque se note que el sonido está más pulido y es más accesible, no deja de sonar sucio y experimental. Una clase magistral en cómo salir de la contracultura sin venderse ni perder la esencia. Y, además, estos álbumes tan punkies a mí siempre me han gustado mucho. Así que, aunque hoy en día no suene tan especial y ya haya mil álbumes de Sonic Youth en esta lista, vamos a darle buena nota.

Sonic headache

I can respect the history and influence here, but I think I’m officially too old for this kind of energy. The fuzzy, feedback-heavy wall of sound feels less like rebellious noise and more like someone parked a lawnmower in my living room. There are flashes of cool, dissonant genius, but they get buried under chaos. After a while, it stops feeling edgy and starts feeling exhausting. If this is youthful anarchy, I’ll be over here drinking tea in peace.

bolom uszy

Some really strong stuff here wrapped in a lot of noise noodling. Not what I needed yesterday.

Absolute crap.

I like Sonic Youth but more familiar with the records either side of this one, Daydream Nation and Dirty. Listening to this I was hovering between a 3 and a 4 but the last track (Titanium Expose) puts it definitiveky into the four category. This might also be the time that Kim Gordon was at her absolute coolest, not that she was ever anything other than cool, but dann she drops coolness all over this thing.

too much alt and not enough noise. 4/5

Meh

<3

Didn't grab me

Nie umiem się przekonać do tego zespołu. Wiem, że byli wielcy, ale dla mnie raz są nudni a raz chaotyczni. Ta płyta mi się strasznie dłużyła, raz nużyła, raz irytowała ani razu nie chwyciła za serce. Doceniam część kompozycji, ale nic nie zostanie ze mną na dłużej. 5/10

неплохая шумиха

I like the raw energy of this album. The noise and ambient stuff works for me more than the experimental and no-wave stuff. I'm hearing the Lou Reed and Pattie Smith influence which I am not that into. Still an enjoyable album over all.

I enjoyed it a lot and would listen again, a lot better than other guitar music of the era

To this day, whenever I read that something is "noise music" in any way, I always jump ahead and assume the worst about it. I suppose it's just lingering memories of how much I absolutely hated PSYCHOCANDY givin' me the willies... Or maybe that I can very well picture how "noise music" would sound in less creative hands, where the people makin' it just wanna be taken **seriously** as **artists**, gosh darn it. Y'know, **that kind** of pretension. Luckily, though, Sonic Youth don't fall into that unfortunate camp. Sure, there are a couple of spots here where they dip their toes into making completely abrasive noise (particularly "Scooter + Jinx", though it's only a minute, so whatever), but for the most part... I'unno, to my ears it just sounds like a slightly more distorted guitar rock album with a few unusual guitar tunings. And, hey, that's all fine and good. I can be incredibly simple sometimes: I hear something that I think rocks, I'm usually all the way down for it. Heck, it was for that exact same reason I liked the last album of theirs my group got, DIRTY. Honestly, if there's any spot where I'm not too 100% on this album, it's in the lyrics — and not because I think they're bad, no. To be frank, I don't have many thoughts about the actual quality of the lyric writing and their meaning or whatever. Rather, I'm more focused on the kind of audience I can imagine going absolutely gaga for this sorta stuff: Gen X hipsters. The people who're "too good" for the radio and stare at the cover wishing they had someone else to wear sunglasses and smoke cigarettes with because it's the coolest thing they've ever seen. The kinda people who'd hear "Kool thing, what're you gonna do to free us girls from white male corporate oppression?" and nod along and have a long discussion with their friends about it, though they won't actually **do** anything because they really only just wanna feel smart for having that thought (and they're also likely all men themselves, so...). Y'know what I mean? Like, I don't wanna dunk too hard on these imaginary, strawman hipsters I randomly thought up, but at the same time, I gotta be real, it's why on the first side of the album I was feelin' I'd hafta keep this thing a bit at arms length. My reason for liking this album isn't cool enough for this cover, y'know? But all the same, like I said, it rocks, so I'm down to give this thing a big thumbs up. Even if there's an aura about it that it probably drinks a few gallons of overpriced coffee a week, it doesn't change that, hey, the guitars are loud and do cool things and riffs, so, y'know, I'm a happy girl. And anyway, it's still a more appealing album than PSYCHOCANDY was — as if that's a high bar, but still.

Might've only been released in 1990, but this just feels like something one of the groups in Seattle were cooking up. 4.5 bumped up to 5.

I’m at a 4.5 that I think I will just *barely* bump up to a 5, though I’d prefer to leave it there. Lot more on the “sonic” side of Sonic Youth for this album, and while a lot of it has now blended together in my brain after 49 minutes of a *lot* of overdriven guitar, percussion, and layered buildups & chords, it’s the sort of album where being present in the moment for each track enhances it much more than just listening to it for 49 minutes flat. These tracks are designed to work with their soundscapes as a storytelling tool, meaning if you do zone out, tracks won’t be quite as effective. Yes, lyrics & vocals have an obvious presence here (and I’d be remiss to not point out that Kim Gordon’s tracks are the strongest ones on the album, especially “Kool Thing”), but for the most part, I think the strength of this album comes from how unique it feels for 1990. This doesn’t feel like a slight leftover from the metal of the 80s, nor does it feel like it fits into the same “grunge” box ala Nirvana or Pearl Jam. It feels like a hybrid of late-70s post-punk with the sort of late 90s pop-punk that would emerge after grunge’s peak period, with just a bit of shoegaze thrown in. It’s a weird hybrid, and one that feels a little incompatible at points on the album, but when it clicks, it REALLY clicks, and I think it clicks enough here to justify a bump up to a 5. I will say this though: I think the album has a bit of a dropoff after “Disappearer”, and that’s not just because I got jumpscared by “Mildred Pierce”. I think the focused nature of the first 7 tracks of the album get lost somewhere in the final 4, and that’s why I’m really hesitant to actually bump this up to a 5. There’s nothing wrong with any of the last 4 tracks, but they’re either too long for what they are, or they just circle the bases a lot instrumentally, and when the first 7 tracks are already long enough to begin with, a fatigue can definitely set in that just pulls the album experience down. This is not a “fast” 49 minutes, not by a long shot, but I think it’s a rewarding one if you let yourself get immersed. If you can’t find yourself fully immersed into this sort of thing, it will feel so much longer. That immersion break happened for me around the last 4 tracks, but I can’t really tell if that’s just from the tracks actually getting less focused, general soundscape fatigue, or just listening to this at a sort of bad time. Regardless, I think it does earn the bump up to a 5, but just barely. I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt because of the strength of the first 7 tracks here, and honestly, it can be extended out to the first 9. Yes, some tracks are obviously too long, and this whole thing could’ve been trimmed around the edges quite a bit, but I don’t think it ruins it as badly as it could have. At the absolute worst, I still think this is a 4 minimum, and a much tighter album than “Dirty” was, in terms of finding a sound and really committing to it. They explore that sound out to its edges, but it’s much more of a consistent soundscape to my ears. It’s a more abrasive sound at times, but that abrasion is used as a strength more often than not. When it’s good, it’s very good, and even at its “worst”, it’s still sonically compelling to some degree that keeps this from ever hitting a point that’s truly ever bad. Hence, the bump up to a 5.

Not my cuppa, others may enjoy it.

One of the better Sonic Youth albums on this list for sure

Hey its the coolest thing ever. Gen xers aren't going to be happy with me and to be honest im not too happy with myself. I just dont vibe. Like Kool thing is good and the insanity of Mildred pierce. Every other song just melts together. I should like this alot. Its loose, kinda messy, has 2 interesting vocalist, it has some speed to it. It should be a home run but its just not. Maybe I need to check some other albums but today its not it. Its still getting a positive look cause I can see myself loving this and ill just buy in this speculative market real quick. Maybe someday I'll love sonic youth. I really hope so

Nice musik men inte alls något speciellt i dess genre

American Alternative/ Noise Rock. I liked the opening track "Dirty Boots", but the rest of the album is meh.

I enjoyed the instrumentation on Tunic (Song for Karen) but it is 6 minutes of spoken words over the instrumentation. If anyone reads my reviews religiously, which I assume would be all of you, then you may be aware spoken words over instrumentation is not my favorite song type. You can give me every Sonic Youth album that has ever been released (this the fourth one I received) and I am probably not changing my mind about them. The album started off really strong and I thought maybe THIS is the album that I change my mind about them. This is the album where I see the genius and don't view them as a good band whose music I can either take or leave. Then the back half of the album devolved into random guitar noises and songs I didn't enjoy as much. I don't know if there is another Sonic Youth album in this book, but at this point, I'm not sure what can change my mind about the band. My favorite songs are: Dirty Boots Tunic (instrumentation-only) Kool Thing Disappearer Mildred Pierce

2.5/5 idk I can appreciate this but I don't love any songs and I don't like most of them. Overall it was fine but I had to skip the second half of 'Mote'. I definitely preferred the songs the woman "sang" and I enjoyed some of the playful lyrics. Interestingly, i think my fav was 'Disappearer'.

I love the spirit, the texture of this album. I don’t love that it feels repetitive in the second half. Some amazing, iconic songs here. I’m really happy this is in the list.

Not great

amo sonic youth, esse album é o melhor e pior da banda

Punk rock

Grungy punk sound

Mix of rock, post-punk, indie/garage. Not a bad sound, but not hugely distinctive. By the end it was quite a lot of noise.. Best track - Kool Thing, Titanium Expose 3 stars

Not my cup of tea but I get why people like it

Liikaa pörinää loppua kohden, korvia särkee. En tajua, miksi niin halutaan kuulijalle tehdä. A-puolella ja puolivälissä tykkään kyllä joistain nätimmistä melodioista, ja grunge kyllä vetoaa. Siitä tavoittaa snadisti yli kaks ja puol tähteä.

Dad- NA Mom- 5 Mike- 6 Lori- 6 Michael- 6 Miles- 6 Cole- 7.5 Avg- 6.08

Listens: 3 Standout Tracks: Tunic (Song For Karen), Kool Thing, My Friend Goo I wasn't blown away by any of the tracks; the latter half especially (with the exception of Mildred Pierce) was nothing to write home about. I thought Tunic was weird at first, this girl talking about how she's making it on her own, but it grew on me after a few listens. My Friend Goo was kind of weird, but in an enduring way? I wasn't left with any lasting impressions of the music itself. A lot of guitar heavy tracks, a ton of making noise experimenting with the guitar, but none of it particularly mind blowing.

Good album

as stated before

Ive really struggled with american college rock of this era but this seemed like a cut above the rest. There was some really good melody and tune in between the screeching. It also came across as a proper album rather than a collection of singles.

Given the music I was into back then, and how revered they were, you would think I would be right in to Sonic Youth. Turns out I’m not. None of the three albums on here have grabbed me. There are glimmers of hope but they don’t turn in to anything particularly interesting or enjoyable. And underwhelming 3

Really enjoyed this. Super ready for a deep dive!

I thought I was going to rock out to this album. I did not, maybe I'm getting old

My first 1!

posers

I don't listen to Sonic Youth often but when I do, so do my neighbors. You're not supposed to like a punk band's major label debut but this is one of their best albums. Still, they are like the Grateful Dead in that it's only when they're playing live that their music truly comes alive and their records get tiresome pretty quickly. Next time you are in a used record shop, compare the wear of the grooves on side one of any of their records and I bet it will be quite worn and ground down and then flip it over and side two will look new by comparison. So, as is the case with most of SY's albums, here I enjoy the beginning the most. The guitars on Dirty Boots are epic and a brilliant summation of the overtone heavy guitar army approach they learned coming up under NY No Wave maestro Glenn Branca and then brought to the mainstream (relatively speaking). This is the essence of why they were so much better live. To truly "get it," the music has to be loud enough so the interplay of the overtones of the droning and chiming from the unusually and usually repetitively strung and tuned (eg, six high e strings) guitars can come to the foreground. Unless you have a death wish and a crazy stereo, when you're listening to their albums at home the legitimately innovative guitar disappears and you're left focusing on the more traditional aspects of rock n roll like the singing and the songs and both are very hit or miss with these guys, unfortunately. The other great song in this album appears immediately after, Tunic. SY's voices sound ironic by default and I can't blame them, because suffering a 1960s childhood with the name Thurston will harden anyone a la boy named Sue. And a tribute to the uber white bread Karen Carpenter might seem like fertile ground for skewering American culture, but you realize a couple of minutes in that this is entirely unironic and actually a harrowing and very sad song from the afterlife. Tunic is maybe the one SY song where the lyrics matter as much as the music and they come together to great effect. Actually, to correct the record, Kim Gordon, not Thurston Moore, handles the vocals on this one and she "sings" more tunes on Goo than usual and that is another thing that makes this album better than most. Tower Records was still a going concern when Goo came out and I fondly recall their East Village store's windows papered with a gigantic tryptic extending this killer cover art by the great Raymond Pettibon (look him up). It was one of those things that made New York feel vibrant and exciting to a sonically inclined youth wandering the big city, trying to get all the cool to seep into his skin through repeated exposure. Sonic Youth is credited for bringing Nirvana to Geffen, and their pulling Raymond Pettibon up from the underground along with them was an equally beneficent mitzvah. So, even if you never saw them live - and to be sure, they could put on a helluva show right up there with the best of them as the many Neil Young fans will tell you when they opened for his Ragged Glory tour the year after Goo - you can still get a chill up your spine if you can get a copy of this on vinyl so you have the big cover you can hold and stare at while you crank up side one to a level that will inspire a wellness check from your neighbors.

Argh--I just re-discovered that this is only #2 of 5 Sonic Youth albums in this collection. And sadly, my enjoyment of them isn't much changed from listening to "Daydream Nation" (or for that matter owning "Dirty"). This does seem like a better album overall than "Daydream Nation", with a little less sonic wall overall, but it still doesn't hook me the way I know it should. This album has a shocking number of videos for most of the tracks (all but one, in fact), nearly all of which I don't really recall having heard before, although with Sonic Youth it's a bit hard to tell at times--I feel like I might have heard both the Karen Carpenter-homage "Tunic" and the LL Cool J diss track "Kool thing" before, but they sound like so many other Sonic Youth tracks, it's hard to remember (although kudos to them for getting Chuck D to do the call-and-response on "Kool thing"). This definitely seems like one of if not the best Sonic Youth albums; I just wish I enjoyed them more than I do.

I enjoyed this album more than Daydream Nation--more interesting, nice rough sound--but I'm still peeved that we there are FIVE sonic youth albums given how many solid artists aren't represented at all. Getting back to Sonic Youth, I think I'm more of a greatest hits girl wrt their output--when they're on, I really like them, but on every album there are usually only one or two songs I really like.

I’m a pretty big sonic youth fan and this album starts out great “dirty boots”, but does tend to fall off at the end. Not their best stuff despite some of their biggest commercial hits. Dig “kool thing” too.

Once again, Kim Gordon proves she’s the most talented member of Sonic Youth. Her songs on this album are way above the rest, with “Tunic (Song For Karen)” and “Kool Thing” being the standouts of the entire album. As a record, this isn’t as strong as Daydream Nation or Dirty, and I’m not sure it needs to be on here. Not a bad album, just doesn’t feel like Sonic Youth at their best.

‘‘Twas a bad day to have ears.

Nah because I dug this.

Sylvia Plath and Karen Carpenter mentioned

Look at me I can’t sing or play guitar I’m so edgy oooooo

I liked it, more experimental than I expected

Un álbum que debe ser de escucha obligatoria para todo aquel que desee profundizar en la historia de la música.

It was good. I have forgotten how enjoyable they ae to listen to.

Sonic Youth, perswoonlijk nooit van gehoord. Maar 90s rock ligt mij over het algemeen wel, dus ik doe dit top moeten vinden. Eerste nummer is iig erg lekker. Nummer 2 en 3 helaas wat minder voor mijn smaak. 2e nummer is erg emo. Nummer 3 gaat meer richting punkrock. Nee, ik kan tijdens het 6e nummer de conclusie trekken dat dit zeer slecht uitgevoerde engelse punk is. Jammer. Erger mij dood zo op de zondagavond. Nee, dit is echt drerrie. Veel herrie, weinig kwaliteit, veel ergernis. 2 voor de moeite.

dirty boots- 5. i hate his voice. tunic- 5 mary christ- 5 or 6 kool things- 5 mote- 4. im bored my friend goo- 5 disappearer- 5 mildred pierce- sure whatever. 6 cinderella's big score- 5 scooter and jinx- 5 titanic expose- 5 it just doesnt hit for me the way it seems to for others but everyone has their thing. and there are sonic youth songs i like. they just.... seem to be missing from this album

Goo will be my fourth Sonic Youth album to review, and also my second and last of their albums that I was already familiar with before starting this project. I bought Goo after listening to and being blown away by Daydream Nation. I chose Goo, because it was also in the first edition of the 1001 Albums book, and I knew “Kool Thing” from one of the Guitar Hero games (say what you want about Rock Band and Guitar Hero, but those games introduced me to some great music). I remember not being terribly blown away by Goo when I first listened to it (probably because it didn’t have its own “Teenage Riot” on it), but I’m happy for the chance to reexamine it, now that it’s been over 15 years since my first listen. Here’s hoping that Sonic Youth will go a perfect four-for-four on five-star albums with me! Sonic Youth is one of those bands that I say that I like, but then I wonder if I really do like them, or if I just think that I should like them, and therefore I’ve tricked my brain into thinking that I like their music. Well, for the fourth time with one of their albums, as soon as Goo started up, I mumbled ‘oh hell yeah’ to myself when those opening guitar notes of “Dirty Boots” started playing. I think I can safely say that I like these guys and that I’m not trying to gaslight myself. Yeah, Goo doesn’t have a sweeping epic like “Teenage Riot,” nor is it as melodious as Sister, but it's still an incredible album, full of wonderfully layered guitars, tight percussion, and some really great songwriting. Goo’s sound was constantly varied, but stayed cohesive, due to how the songs were structured and how the guitar playing was arranged. The only negative thing that I have to say about this album is that “My Friend Goo” is incredibly weird, and not in a way that I found good or interesting. However, after that brief 200 seconds, the album picked right back up in quality. The mixture of vocals from Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore kept things interesting too, because each of them really brings something different to the table in terms of their songwriting and vocal abilities. Lee Ronaldo’s vocals on “Mote” were really good too. The first four songs on Goo were my favorite part, but “Disappearer,” “Mildred Pierce,” and “Cinderella’s Big Score” were all great too. “Kool Thing” stands out as one of the best songs on the album, with Gordon’s droning vocals matching the guitar tones perfectly. The drum fills were fantastic too, and who’s that voice I hear? Is that my favorite rapper, Chuck D? Why, it most certainly is! Fantastic. “Cinderella’s Big Score” showcases how great Sonic Youth are at writing guitar parts that change and evolve over the course of a song. Every little twist and turn in the sound of that song is perfect. “Tunic” is probably my favorite song on the album though. The lyrics and vocals are excellent, and I love the mood and atmosphere that this song has. There are so many little guitar hooks buried within this song, and they all sound great. Goo is yet another fantastic effort from Sonic Youth. I hadn’t listened to this album in a really long time, but going through this list has really made me fall in love with Sonic Youth again.

thoughts: the lows are lower than my least favorite tracks on daydream nation, but this is a really solid mix of that album’s vibe and what they were doing in their more primitive work. i can only imagine hearing this in 1990 and wanting more songs: “tunic (song for karen)”, “disappearer”, “mildred pierce” rating: 8/10

it is enjoyable

Favorite songs: Mary-Christ, Dirty Boots Least favorite songs: Mote, Scooter and Jinx, Mildred Pierce 2/5

Meh punk

Ok not sure I get the hype

It's not my favourite Sonic Youth album, more grungey than I like. But I guess that was the time.

I like the sound of these guitars.

Usually this is the kind of album I would like but this just felt like noise

Some songs were cool. Others were just okay. 3/5

Fairly noisy rock record. It has a nice energy and cohesiveness to it, but the bloody-raw edge is not really my thing. It sounds like a band's first record, before they ascended to major-label success or crashed and burned, whichever. I was surprised to see they were already long-time veterans when they put this out.

Not bad, but nothing jumps out.

GOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Continuing to enjoy my Sonic Youth education. Not one of their albums (four down so far) has been easy to rate or even really listen to and gather my thoughts on. And I’ve really appreciated that. It’s just the right level of challenge and interesting for my musical curiosity. Goo is, like its successor and predecessor, full of great guitar work and far-too-cool vocals, it evokes a load of great indie and post-punk bands of the 90s and 00s (Ash, Placebo, Interpol…) but throws out curveballs to jolt your attention back. I plan to spend more time with this one and the others, when I have a bit more time. It’s just a shame I didn’t do so 30 years sooner. Better late than never.

Proof that you can go mainstream without sacrificing your voice. Not only is this the most accessible Sonic Youth has ever been, but it’s also the tightest. The result is strong songs that punch you in the face, and some of their best material to date. From the indie hit “Kool Thing” to the brief title-ish track “My Friend Goo” to the emotional “Tunic” to the bombastic “Dirty Boots,” there’s so much here to adore on first listen, which isn’t normally the case with Sonic Youth. But while there’s some more traditional song structure found here compared to past efforts, there’s still a lot of room for noise and strangeness, especially on Side B, with the screams of “Mildred Pierce,” the noisy minute of “Scooter + Jinx,” and “Titanium Exposé”’s deconstructed approach to what it means to be a mainstream noise band. Of course, the 7-minute epic “Mote” is the best example of the balance Goo excels at showcasing, providing Ranaldo with his only lead vocal track– for the best, imo– with a strange-yet-catchy radio prospect in the front, and an expansive feedback session in the back. I think this minimization of the noise/no wave shtick is to Goo’s benefit; you still have it if you want it, just in smaller doses than say on Daydream Nation. That limited presence makes it more exciting when it does show up. For my money, this is hands down Sonic Youth’s best album. It combines everything the band has perfected, boils those elements down to the simplest cell, and packaged them together like a van turned Tetris puzzle.

Не знаю, для меня как-то мрачно по вайбу сейчас, в подростковом возрасте по другому ощущалась эта музыка. Сейчас не могу такое слушать. Хотя конечно культовые чуваки своего воемени

didnt realy catch me (thou I havent finished it) it's just not the soundscape I'm lookin for atm

Ein Album wie ein flackernder Röhren-Fernseher um 2 Uhr nachts – halb Kunst, halb Chaos, und vollgeladen mit Noise, Ironie und Subversion. Es ist eines dieser Werke, das zwischen Genie und Zumutung balanciert – und gerade das macht seinen Reiz aus. Tracks wie „Kool Thing“ (mit Public Enemy’s Chuck D!) oder „Dirty Boots“ sind Highlights: rebellisch, melodisch, ikonisch. Sie tragen die DNA des Alternative Rock der 90er in sich und mischen politischen Biss mit coolem Desinteresse. Dann wiederum gibt es Songs, die sich so tief in Noise-Rock-Experimente stürzen, dass man sich fragt, ob sie überhaupt gefunden werden wollen. „Scooter + Jinx“ zum Beispiel ist eher Klanginstallation als Song – die die Grenze zur Lärmbelästigung überschreiten.

Really not our vibe. Slightly screechy and unpleasant at times.

I remember when Sonic Youth approached Houmous & Chutney to join them in 1989. Both of us were well into our 70s by then and really didn’t feel like we’d fit into a band with the name Youth. I can see what they were thinking. We were the total package when it came to music. 4.2 4/11 Kool Thing

I've now heard a fair few Sonic Youth albums of the back of the list and none of them have impressed me. An overrated band.

Just remember that Kim’s friend Goo has a real tattoo and she always knows just what to do

Groovy in a sleazy way

1. a sticky or slimy substance. 2. excessive sentimentality 3. a really rather good album

5 Sonic Youth albums you need to listen to before you die!? Surely that number can go down? Not bad, but not my thing. To quote everyone's dad, "It's just a load of noisy guitars."

Our fifth (and last) Sonic Youth album on the 1001 list. I may like this slightly more than Daydream Nation, and that's probably down to Kool Thing.

Loved it

Aldrig riktigt lyssnat på SY. Gillar musiken jävligt mycket. Men sången å lite dippar gör att det "bara" blir en trea. Tror möjligen att fler lyssningar skulle hjälpa. Men hinner inte nu :/

Tycker ungefär likadant om denna som jag gjorde om Evol. Gillar det mesta, framförallt när tjejen sjunger, men finns också en del låtar som inte är helt övertygande. Svag fyra precis som sist.

I hate Sonic Youth.

Iconic album from one of the greats. No filler, it’s my favorite of theirs front to back. And such cool cover art to boot. To boot ☝🏼

Really front-loaded Sonic Youth here. Feel like I’m one album short of a certificate. Again, great snatches of sound, but the song format manages to detract from the experience. Therefore a definitively awful album? How about no singing at all? My Need for Speed play would be off the charts.

I am not a sonic youth, that’s for sure.

Might be my new favorite SY

Sonic Youth makes yet another legendary album. Their discography is somehow jam packed with classics, you'd think the last record they had released (in this case, Daydream Nation) would be their obvious magnum opus, but they keep one upping themselves. So consistantly solid. The guitar tone and playing is out of this world. "Kool Thing" is just so.... COOL! Amazing album

Essential listen.

adequate

Hmmm, not sure what to think, 2/5

What I like the most about the album Goo by the band Sonic Youth is that it sounds exactly how you would imagine an album called Goo by a band called Sonic Youth would sound. My only gripe with Goo is the same as for most other Sonic Youth albums on the list - the most noisy parts linger on a tad too much. We get it. You like noise. And probably all have tinnitus. And apparently Kim Gordon is making trap music 35 years later. Kool Kids.

Sonic Youth do what you would expect on Goo. It’s equal parts noisy, pretty and kool. What else did you expect?

It wasn't bad. I was listening to this while chilling in the car.

Better than earlier Sonic Youth albums by a mile, but that really isn't saying much. A couple solid singles but a lot of unpleasant noise tracks that detract from the more mainstream songs. Top tracks: Dirty Boots, Kool Thing

Não gosto de noise, então por consequência, não gosto de grande parte da discografia do Sonic Youth. Mas Goo é diferente, é o álbum mais consistentemente audível que eles lançaram. Em poucos momentos ele me incomoda, mas no geral, eu gosto das guitarras noiosas e dos vocais indolentes. Este é um disco indubitavelmente transbordante de personalidade e caráter. Também me remete a adolescência. “Consistentemente audível”, que maneira hilária de descrever um disco. Mas é verdade! Um álbum bem balanceado e engajante. Exala uma morosidade frenética bem paradoxa. Curto isso nele. 4/5

> the Beatles

disappointing, felt experimental for the sake of being experimental

5/5

#358 on Rolling Stones top 500 of all time????? Why? This sounds like every British 80s album on this list, despite Sonic Youth being American.

Sometimes their songs feel very unique and sometimes they sound a lot the same, and this album hit my kinda flat.

Comme un rêve punk qui pourrait toujours verser dans le cauchemar

It's a terrible admissions, I suppose. 60-years on Planet Earth, and i'd never knowingly listened to this album. First listen, I secretly smiled and chuckled. "So this is what Destroy All Monsters" got up to next." Second listen, I thoughly enjoyed the sound, and the evolution from previous Post-Punk bands. However. Mildred Pierce just doesn't work for me....and that knocks Goo down to a four star for me.

'Hey Goo what's new!' Sonic Youth crossing over into more college-radio friendly alternative/indie rock. The opener hits all the right notes for the 1990s. Maybe they were listening to the Pixies around this time, the songs are leaner and tighter, especially for the opener 'Dirty Boots'. Kim Gordon gets some great moments on this album, kicking off with the haunting 'Tunic (Song for Karen)', and the classic 'Kool Thing'. There's still plenty of distortion and feedback for those looking for the more experimental Sonic Youth sound. Check out the end of 'Mote'! This song itself is sung by Lee Ranaldo, and reminds me of some of Husker Du's work. Even though the album sounds more radio friendly, 'My Friend Goo' hints that they're also taking the piss out of the college scene (as Nirvana often did). What a change into 'Disappearer' - such great guitar work. Things get more dissonant and noisy from then on - 'Mildred Piece', 'Cinderella' and the closer 'Titanium Expose' let Moore and Ranaldo lean into their guitar work, creating dense layers of angular and harsh riffs and solos. It's a classic and never gets old.

Really not for me, took me a few days to get through. 2.1/10

Influential stuff and love the dynamic between the guitars, although the bass and drums are awesome too, there are a couple moments where the noise-rock side of it caused it lose some focus and flow in my opinion but do really enjoy this

Solid 4

listened to this like last week great record. not my first sonic youth maybe the second i don’t remember but kool thing really got me into their music more. that and disconnection notice but that’s a dif album

Screaming guitar music.

Meh, no es mi tipo

Didn't enjoy it as much as Daydream Nation, but still good.

I enjoyed the muscular, mischievous, and energetic sound. Kim Gordon has an incredible voice. Much like Jefferson Airplane, I enjoyed the tracks with her leading vocals more than the rest. But all in all, this is a lot of fun.

I overall enjoyed the sound of this album, blending the anger and apathy of 80s punk with what eventually became 90s alt-rock. But, for good chunks of the album, all I could think was "wow, these folks sure do love their effects pedals." The album would have been better without several minutes of just different effects over the guitars without much going on musically.

I really vibed with a lot of this album. Less so with the noise rock/screamy parts, but those were pretty minimal anyway.

Jangly, dissonant, and freeform collides with machinelike repetition. Feedback snarls in the background, everything locked in a relentless groove. Lee Ranaldo’s traditional two songs, as usual, blow the rest out of the water, adding an angular, off-kilter punch to an album that already cuts deeper than most. This record just does not fuck around.

wasn't for me

I liked it but couldn’t relate to it. It reminded me of Morgan and that hurt

Iconico

Classic album. There's some hits on here, some real weirdness too

Pretty average ig

Heavily distorted guitars but catchy choruses that keep it from veering into the unlistenable side of noise rock. Long stretches of instrumental that is easy to rock out to. Some real standouts: "Kool Thing", "Dirty Boots" and "Disappearer".

Not their absolute best, but a classic.

The only other Sonic Youth album I've listened to at this point is Daydream Nation which I gave a 5. The magic of that album is diluted here, a lot of the songs feel like grunge songs with noise piped on top instead of emergent structures built from the noise while Kim or Thurston mutters at you, which is much more my jam. I really liked Mildred Pierce and Tunic though.

Alt rock, with some heavy "noise" guitar at times

weiss nüt über sonic youth han ihren name scho ghört aber meh nöd. coole lärmige bitz unorganisierte rock die erdte zwei songs bis etz. tunic seeehr tenie angst gsprochene gsang. aber nice irgendwie es funzt. mary christ au wieder cool hässig, lieb dases e frau als frontperson hend. sooo selte in rockbands. s cover goht au insane hard. kool thing erinneret mich a oasis live irgendwie, aso maine road. offesichtlich sind wenn denn oasis sie am nomache. es tönt afoch noch hässigem 90er rock und wells 1990 isch ischs mega sinere ziit vorus. mote wird chli noisier, i like immerno? okay es vergheit etz schono hä. aber de bass tönt immerno geil ebe. my friend goo schono funny haha disappearer wieder mannestimm cooli abwechslig er sings sehr soothing gfallt mer. d riffs gönd recht hard. bsunders de jetz. keeein plan wer d mildred pierce isch aber de song isch no geil. cinderellas big score goht au no hard, aber ich merk etz dass wenni weniger guet druf wär mir das album bitz zu chratzig wär. so s chan scho streng werde. aber finds objektiv super.

isch sonic youth nöd au mega ide grunge szene es ding gsi oder han ich das nur s gfühl? dirty boots isch voll ok karens song klassische fall vo "ja schono cool aber auchli langwilig" mary christ isch sehr pönkig I like ok es isch recht langwilig disappearer findi na cool, er singt chli andersch und wies schneller wird git echli e dynamik hahah mildred pierce DE SCHLUSSSSSS titanium expose hetmer no gfalle pfff ja was sölli sege, die zweit hälfti wo stellewiis recht punkig gsi isch, hetmer sicher chli besser gfalle, und d lieder wod kim gordon gsunge het, sind e willkommeni abwechslig gsi. 3 DE EINT GUY HEISST THURSTON ZUM VORNAME???

This is the third installment in what is quite possibly the greatest 3 album run of all time. It's absolutely jam packed with amazing riffs, unbeatable energy, and even some more heartfelt moments including an ode to Karen Carpenter. The versatility of this album is truly on another level, as well as the fantastic writing and production, that just matched the bands style and vision absolutely perfectly.

It is kinda uninteresting

I appreciate Sonic Youth, but they've never been my favourite of bands. They have songs that I love, but none of them are on this album. Good for background music and makes a cover makes a good tshirt

I want to like it, but I don't

i liked the guitar at the beginning of Dirty boots, then it was mostly downhill from there

Turns out the kids had bad music before too

It feels very middle of the back album no songs that are great and none that are complete stinkers.

Noisy alt-rock. What's not to like?

Pretty solid, though not dissonant enough for my liking.

Obligatory "man, I love their music but their singing is so unfortunate" comment ✓ Sounds very similar to Daydream Nation. I like it, but it feels kind of weird that they are repeating themselves. Nonetheless, the guitar noodling is really good

if the last one was forgettable, I dont even remember the song i finished listening to 2 minutes ago

Not for me. Just a bit odd, idk

Some of it, especially the first couple songs, sounds like slam poetry. All together though a somewhat similar sound to nevermind. All together a good listen though.

It’s not bad when it gets out of its own ass. Feels like a band trying so hard not to care that it ends up being obvious they care a lot. Most of it felt like effort disguised as disinterest, but “My Friend Goo” hit the punk note, and “Mildred Pierce” almost worked before they wrecked it. “Titanium Exposé” closed things out better than expected.