North London Expressionist Paintings Bad Moon Rising by Sonic Youth | Review

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Bad Moon Rising by Sonic Youth

Below the review are YouTube videos of all the Bad Moon Rising songs (performed live where possible) by Sonic Youth at various concerts.

Bad Moon Rising is a tuneful album, not the ambient sound dirge it's made out to be. If you've not heard it before, or only heard Death Valley '69, imagine what Kraftwerk would have done with Sonic Youth's sound in 1975. Most songs are their own ecosystem. All an intrinsic part of the same healthy soundscape, but can't take them outside. This is intentional, running the ends of songs in to the beginning of the following song. You can't split them up. But a lot of it isn't far from some of Sister or even Daydream Nation, but what's also considered unique about Bad Moon Rising is what is missing. The surplus sound is central to BMR. Kind of like reinventing the backbone, but not entirely a Sonic Youth invention. Most bands recording in this fashion, would be left with an album of pure silence.This hasn't been carried out as law though. Death Valley 69, which erupts after what, at that point, sounds like a seven song crescendo, is the obvious single. The bass lines, drums and whatever those other banging noises are, are all part of a sound seemingly made for this album alone. Vocals are perfectt, the guitars main role seems to be to support the atmosphere that surrounds everything else. Eeverything compliments everything, what psychedelia boils down to. Texture and ambience. Melodies below the surface and understated. The rhythm noises most prominent. This album is addictive, the more you become familiar, the more beautiful it sounds. Lyrics to this album are just vocal noises as far as I'm concerned, but you can't help but make out some political and social context. How the band see these songs, or how you see them may be entirely different, but for me this album is abstract.

Brave Men Run (In My Family):

Society is a Hole:


I Love Her All the Time:


Ghost Bitch:


I'm Insane:


Justice is Might:


Death Valley '69:


Satan is Boring: can't find on Youtube


Flower:


Hallowe'en:


Echo Canyon: can't find on Youtube

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Uploaded by Edgeworth Johnstone - Contemporary Expressionist Artist from Muswell Hill, North London. Visit artists blog.