Sonic Youth: Rather Ripped

Herald rating: * * * * *

Sonic Youth are just so cool. Even after 20 albums - admittedly including a few horrible misses - they remain relevant.

Rather Ripped is in the same laidback tempo as 2004's Sonic Nurse and 2002's Murray Street. But those albums had a frustrating habit of veering off in directions akin to the band members' experimental side projects.

The difference on Rather Ripped is the consistency, intensity and pop elements. But this is not watered-down mainstream Sonic Youth, this is discordant, rumbling, heaving pop.

The six-minute Turquoise Boy starts as a ditty, then a lashing guitar turns it into a wash of unease that could be from the band's 1988 classic Daydream Nation.

Then there's Sleepin' Around, the sexiest Sonic Youth moment since Kim Gordon rode a Silver Rocket in '88.

Pink Stream is the brooding gem of the album, and the catchy Incinerate, Reena and What A Waste are like three hit singles.

While Rather Ripped sounds different to Sonic Youth in their heydays of 1986 (EVOL) and the mainstream breakthrough of 1992 (Dirty), this is their best album since. Get in there and get ripped.

Label: Universal