I take no pride in admitting that I don’t love Sonic Youth as much as I should. Their genius appears to me like one of those novelty pictures where you’re meant to stare at psychedelic patterns until an image of a dolphin or a sailboat appears- I can sort of see it, but not as clearly as everybody else in the room. In all honesty, most of their music is so busy and fractious, my reaction is disturbingly similar to that of the Dad in the Twisted Sister videos, if you’ll excuse another dated reference.

But Sonic Youth is like a one night stand- when they’re good, they’re great, to the extent that I would never quarrel with the scores of people who rate them so highly. An example of such a high-point is this standout from their 2004 album Sonic Nurse, in which the band forgoes their sometimes intemperate angst for something soft spoken and bare, effectively stricken by a maudlin romanticism.

Sonic Youth – I Love You Golden Blue 7:03 mins/ 192 kbps/ 9.69 MB