- Critic score
- Publication
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Murray Street's first four songs rank among the most consistent, and consistently exciting, work in Sonic Youth's career, so much so that the album's shorter, more rock-oriented songs feel a bit anticlimactic.
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Alternative PressFeatures less avant-garde noodling and more straight-up Youth. [Sep 2002, p.96]
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Features some of the group's most focused and seductive work ever.
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BlenderThey've got more sweet-and-bitter guitar muscle than ever. [#8, p.122]
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For the first time in their careers, Sonic Youth are willing to stand for something and give it to you, no frills. No more hiding behind black shades and pretending you're Lou Reed, no more let's try to make the scariest noises possible from our guitars sessions, no more poses. Sonic Youth have grown up.
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With Murray Street the band has made a persuasive case for its ongoing existence for the first time in over a decade.
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Entertainment WeeklySonic Youth find a balance--between formlessness and structure, melody and cacophony--that's eluded them for a while. [28 Jun 2002, p.142]
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MojoThe band's conventional elements are even more conventional while the boundary-pushers stretch as far as ever. [Album of the Month, July 2002, p.92]
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Written with some basic, inviting rock structures, the album replaces the hyper energy and angst of older material with slowed-down, complex textures and delicate grooves -- but still rocks out intermittently.
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Overall, SY fail to get into their groove between twisted, brutalised melody and spastic six-string experimentalism.
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Murray Street is like falling asleep with the TV on and waking to rapturous white noise.
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Whether they came on board at Daydream Nation or Experimental Jet Set, true believers will relish this one.
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Murray Street is Sonic Youth's first successful convergence of envelope-pushing guitarwork and accessible songery since 1988.
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There is just enough balance between the tune, and the unexpected jazz chords, ear-splitting squeals, and lovely harmonic noises to make it forever listenable.
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Consider Murray Street to be Sonic Youth's calmer, more introspective journey into the science of sound, one filled with just as many gifts as their earlier, more hard-hitting works. It's filled with rewarding listens.
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Q MagazineAn essay in coolly assured, sophisticated leftfield rock, occasionally laden with trademark discordance yet also full of scintillating tunes. [June 2002, p.123]
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Murray Street achieves that rare thing for any band - real consistency.
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SpinThis time around, the band square their artier tendencies with their sweet tooth for classic psych-rock. [Aug 2002, p.110]
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Whereas the band once seemed to dawdle and wander aimlessly through beds of noise, this new tight formation sees hooks, standard song structures and recognizable melodies.
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Murray Street doesn't mark an epochal moment for Sonic Youth, but its familiar nods and new ingredients--from Steve Shelley's occasionally near-funky drumming to O'Rourke's tingly laptop textures--stake out another high point for a band achieving self-realization by reconciling self-absorption with a sigh and a smile.
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The WireSonic Youth have made a joyful return to their No Wave hardcore rock roots with a vibrating set of muscular songs which glide effortlessly from Gooey power pop to full on guitarmageddon meltdown, skulled out psychedelia and beyond. [#220, p.53]
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UncutMurray Street contains some of the best music Sonic Youth have recorded since the landmark Daydream Nation in 1988. [Jul 2002, p.122]
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The new album isn't terrible, just dull.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 28 out of 33
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Mixed: 4 out of 33
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Negative: 1 out of 33
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Sep 11, 2018
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BrockGJul 10, 2006Modern masterpiece.
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JonathanHApr 13, 2004Brilliant, another masterpiece by Sonic Youth