Of all the descriptions you might apply to Sonic Youth, “radio friendly” isn’t the first that comes to mind, even if below the swathes of noise there are a few tune sand even hit singles.
Watching yer Youth live, it’s not too clear who the racketmonger-in-chief was – all four of them, yes, but maybe Lee Ranaldo the prime mover – because when Moore strips back the noise, we’re left with, well, the tunes. You may have heard title track ‘The Best Day’ on the wireless, a strident rock tune that breaks down into a cowpoke version of a Sonic Youth song, with searing feedback replaced by slightly plinky-plonky… well, it might be a banjo. (Just saying).
‘Tape’ kind of builds the tension though that’s hard when there’s just one guitar. ‘Speak To The Wild’ is typical in that it’s perhaps over-long – all gentle harmonics until it kicks off and just when you think it’s over it all kicks off again. ‘Forevermore’ is 11 minutes and is definitely too long, as without his bandmates there isn’t enough variation in the sound. ‘Germs Burn’ similarly just lacking a bit more oomph. It’s nice to hear Moore’s songwriting here and if he were an unknown act we’d be saying “decent effort, room for improvement”, but he’s set high standards. Plus, I’m not sure it’d be all over 6music…
