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Sonic Nurse neither disappoints nor surpasses expectations.
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Under The RadarIf 1992's Dirty caught the grunge zeitgeist, Nurse might capture something of indie rock's recent taste for emotional epics. [#7]
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This ain't another Daydream Nation, but Nurse is a good cure for what ails the airwaves.
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On the whole, Sonic Nurse compiles a laid-back hour of elaborate plucking and rhythm from five veteran musicians who reserve musical violence and poetic anger for when it feels most appropriate.
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Nurse is the closest to creating a landmark on parallel with Daydream Nation theyve come since that particular record's nameday in 88, and in its dense textures it maybe signals the extinction of the antediluvian No Wave idyll; a Robert Zimmerman trip that somehow got mixed up with Joni Mitchell, Black Flag and a conceptualist oddball.
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Alternative PressSonic Nurse is better than 90 percent of new rock, but with younger combos like Lightning Bolt and Liars stealing their thunder, these well-meaning vets come off as old and in the way. [Jul 2004, p.134]
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A fairly average jaunt into familiar indie rock territory.
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It's [Kim] Gordon's tracks that make the strongest impact.
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The krang of albums past seems more an afterthought as the band explores the natural textures of layered guitar and lumbering bass tracks.
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BlenderTheir most songful release since the major-label hellos Goo and Dirty, and by most standards their best since 1988's pivotal Daydream Nation. [#27, p.144]
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Sonic Nurse finds them embracing and sifting through the finer moments of their past over the course of 10 outstanding tracks.
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MagnetA better-than-average Sonic Youth album. [#64, p.106]
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Sonic Nurse, if not proof of a band bursting with fresh ideas, is at least fresh-sounding.
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Q MagazineFinds them revelling in bursts of noise and awkwardness, but more surprisingly perhaps, taking as much comfort in sweet melody. [Jul 2004, p.124]
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Percolates the same melancholy satisfaction and nervous maturity, entropy and growth, in and out--but with an urgency and impulsiveness that risks upsetting the balance.
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While Sonic Nurse isn't quite as strong as its predecessor, it's equally as imbued with instrumental dexterity and impressively coherent ideas.
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All told, this album is probably the band's best balance of pop melodies and avant-leaning structures since Washing Machine; even if it doesn't rank among their most ambitious work, Sonic Nurse sounds like the kind of album Sonic Youth should be making at this point in their career.
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This unusually songful set is well up among their late good ones, its dissonances a lingua franca deployed less atmospherically than has been their recent practice.
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Lacks the standout tracks of its predecessors.
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Entertainment WeeklyNo big revelations, but plenty of rewards. [11 Jun 2004, p.123]
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Every song but one falls fully developed in the five- to seven-minute ballpark, brimming with enough dissonant wizardry, smart vocal imagery, and tonal shades of rock to fly the freak flag like no aging rockers ever have.
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The WireThe emphasis this time around is on poppier melodies, but for all its attention to song form, Sonic Nurse feels more like a collection of exercises than a cohesive album. [#244, p.63]
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New Musical Express (NME)Sounds like a brilliant album by a lesser band. [5 Jun 2004, p.57]
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Whilst Moores meandering stops Sonic Nurse from going that much needed extra mile, Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo are on reassuringly good form.
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MojoSonic Nurse is not... a classic rock record. And it's not a classic Sonic Youth record. It's an excursion, into corners weird and corners familiar. [Jun 2004, p.100]
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What emerges is Sonic Youth at complete ease with themselves and their music, operating simultaneously at the peak of their powers and with a powerful, audacious restraint.
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SpinA strangely enervated Sonic Youth record, one that exchanges Murray Street's golden-years vigor for a sad sense of duty. [Jul 2004, p.108]
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Sonic Nurse is the happy medium they've been craving. The songs, despite being mostly over five minutes long, are all to the point without feeling meandering.... The balance between noise and melody is right, with each emerging and vanishing at just the right point.
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Rolling StoneThe guitar feedback... hasn't vanished, yet this is Sonic Youth's most accessible album since 1992's Dirty. [24 Jun 2004, p.175]
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UncutThe Youth sound rejuvenated. [Jul 2004, p.108]
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Sonic Nurse could be the best guitar rock album since, well, Murray St.
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FilterA gorgeous, bona fide gem. [#11, p.92]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 42 out of 45
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Mixed: 1 out of 45
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Negative: 2 out of 45
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Nov 19, 2011
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djmDec 14, 2006
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SeamusSMar 27, 2006