CHILLING OUT WITH SONIC YOUTH
A new archival collection shows the New York noise heroes at their best
By their third and last decade, New York noise heroes Sonic Youth opted for their version of chilling out. That same feeling comes across in this archival collection of mostly instrumental jams from throughout the 10 years before Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon’s marriage fell apart, taking the band with it. What could be a random set of toss-offs feels like a fully realized album. As if taking their cue from the years when they tried to fit in with the Lollapalooza crowd, the band rarely descends into formless feedback. They stay locked into the grooves, so that the sprawling brute force of “Out and In” recalls the Daydream Nation era, “Machine” feels like a Dirty outtake, and “Basement Contender” captures the brittle beauty of their latter-period work — the way a casual strummy jam could still build into a whirlwind. E en as guitars and rock itself were starting to take a cultural back seat, Sonic Yo uld make the unhurried sound thrilling. DAVID BROWNE