Gosh, this timing is poignant despite never being intended that way. ‘Hits Are For Squares’ was a Sonic Youth compilation that came out a couple of years ago, and, in what some might see as a bizarre move for this most credible of bands, was originally only available at branches of Starbucks. I mustn’t be too snobby, the coffee chain have cleaned up their ethical act a huge amount since the days when the joke was that they were always conveniently next door to a Gap so eco-warriors could get them both with the same paint bomb. But still, have you seen the other CDs they sometimes sell? So, all was put to rights, and ‘Hits Are For Squares’ was made available to drinkers of other brands of coffee from the end of October 2011.
Truth be told, we were a tiny bit tardy getting our act together at GIITTV, and events overtook us. By which I am referring to the so-sad news that the first couple of alt-rock, Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, have called it a day on their 27 year marriage. I won’t call it a tragedy, no-one has died, but somehow, Mr and Mrs SY were always such icons of cool as individuals; and that quotient was exponentially increased by them being together. It mattered, at least to me it did, it was something to cling onto. And so, while we wait to see what this means for Sonic Youth as a band, and no doubt there are glossy hard-backs in production to mark the occasion, this almost trite record, on which they give people they trust the power to curate and choose, somehow finds itself in the exact time and place to be some sort of bookend on their partnership.
I am very nearly the perfect audience for this record. I’m a year younger than Thurston (and we’re both a couple of years behind Kim). We lived parallel lives, mine straight and conventional, the 9-5, theirs pushing the envelope of artistic endeavour. The strange thing was that despite my own years of eclectic musical taste, it took me forever to discover them. I was put off for so long by their name of all things, my inner voice saying “no you won’t like them”. When I did discover my mistake, only ten or so years ago, I can remember being perversely glad that it had happened that way. It was like discovering that you’ve been sitting on some investment that’s been growing for years, and that you can now go insanely and profligately wild with. Go wild I did, I think the term for me would be ‘completist’. Ciccone Youth anyone?
The question must be whether these are the right songs in the right order to introduce the band to other newbies, as must surely be the intention? In a word, yes. You could argue for others, but as they run it works, starting with the most accessible ‘Bull In The Heather’, Kim intimate in the listener’s ear, the magic of tuneful guitar heard through something hinting that it might turn into a jet engine maelstrom at any moment. The classics are there – ‘Sugar Kane’ and ‘Kool Thing’ are the ones that had me hooked. The earliest song is 1983’s piece of dystopian experimentation ‘The World Looks Red’ and the newest is ‘Slow Revolution’, written especially for this compilation in 2008, and as chilled a slice of SY as you are likely to find. It’s all available elsewhere, apart from that one song (don’t you hate it when they do that?) but as a collection this works brilliantly
I’ll leave you with the concept of Kim whisperingly singing the words “kiss me in the shadow of a doubt” into a microphone in 1985. The words then remain trapped in the aspic and amber grooves of a recording machines, to emerge like a forlorn old photograph 26 years later. The situation might suck, at least the legacy remains. I wish them all well.
[Rating: 4]
