Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse

Genre alternative Publisher Geffen External Links Sonic Youth Geffen Records

Critics and fans alike have been calling this the Youth's best record since the glory days of Goo and Dirty , and while it's true that they haven't rocked this straightforwardly since then, it also underscores how many people misunderstand this band. Though the outrageous "Kim Gordon and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream," a laundry list of advice for Mariah Carey, might have fit comfortably on one of the earlier records, the more reflective material, which still predominates, epitomizes their adult phase -- they could never have cut something as lyrical as the gorgeous closer "Peace Attack" in 1992.

In fact, as a whole this bears most of the hallmarks of late period records like A Thousand Leaves, albeit with the meandering instrumental parts excised and the melodies fleshed out. Diehard fans of the band know that prolonged concentration on their meandering can be like watching flowers bloom. But if separating the wheat from the chaff for the whole of one dynamite record can remind naive young people that you shouldn't count old punks out, I'll lend them the scythe.