Goo (180 Gram Vinyl)

Sonic Youth: Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo (vocals, guitar); Kim Gordon (vocals, bass); Steve Shelley (drums). Additional personnel: Nick Sansano (percussion); Don Fleming (percussion, background vocals); J. Mascis, Chuck D. (background vocals). Producers: Sonic Youth, Nick Sansano, Ron Saint Germain. Recorded at Sorcerer Sound and Greene Street, New York, New York. GOO was Sonic Youth's major label debut and allowed the band to blend its skewed sense of aesthetic and cultural criticism into a more understandable stab at pop culture. GOO unleashed the band's ability to create monster riffs out of fuzzy, unlikely tunings, while bringing their once aloof songwriting into a more pop-sensitive light. GOO's stunning collection of material once again highlighted Sonic Youth's unique writing talents. "Dirty Boots" and "Mary Christ" showed Thurston Moore's delicious slant on rock melody. Yet it was Kim Gordon who stole the show with her chilling "Tunic (Song For Karen)" and the brilliant "Kool Thing." In "Tunic," Gordon wrapped her cunning insight around the Karen Carpenter story: "I feel like I'm disappearing/Getting smaller every day/But I look in the mirror/And I'm getting bigger in every way..." The song was one of the album's many attempts at understanding the mechanics of pop stardom. "Kool Thing" summed up rock's once blatant "fear of a female planet" by placing women rockers in a rap context. "Are you going to liberate us girls/From male, white, corporate oppression?" Gordon toyed, saying more in her deadpan delivery than years of articles on women in rock or rap combined.