LOST CLASSICS: Sonic Youth

NYC NOISE-ROCK PIONEER THURSTON MOORE RECALLS THE MAKING OF 1987’S SISTER AND HIS LATEST ALBUM, 2024’S FLOW CRITICAL LUCIDITY

- Mark McStea

SISTER, RELEASED IN 1987, is widely acclaimed as Sonic Youth’s best album. At the time of its release, it was acknowledged as a step up for the New York City alt-rockers in terms of writing and sonic quality. Evol, released the previous year, had already served notice that the band was moving toward a more mainstream sound. Sister was the record that made good on that promise, delivering commerciality without compromise.

Guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo had already adopted a wildly experimental approach to their playing, inventing unique alternative tunings, using prepared guitars — with drumsticks wedged under the strings (among a number of radical approaches) — and playing behind the bridge. The fact that they could weld such radical unconventionality to songs that delivered memorable melodies and solid hooks was a testament to their creative prowess.

Sister is often cited as one of the key albums of the Eighties. How do you feel about it these days?

I knew we were moving into a territory that was possibly less reckless than the previous albums we'd recorded. We were more focused on concision as far as songwriting was concerned. At that point, when I was in my late twenties, I remember thinking we were becoming more refined and sophisticated as a band, in the context of what kind of band we had been. By that, I mean one that isn’t defined in the traditional high technique bands dealt in. I think Sister was when we were able to combine what we were doing with alternate-tuned guitars and alternate song structure into more accessibility for a broader listenership. I think it marked us entering a new era of sophisticated sonic songwriting. I think we were allowing ourselves to grow up in public.