“I Love You Golden Blue” was one of those abstruse, unreal songs, whose melodic nature belied the dissonance we’d come to expect of the artist at the helms. But the hazy day nature of this year’s Rather Ripped proves, for sure, that Kim has matured beyond besmirching an almost peerless album with, uh, “Plastic Sun,” whilst, conversely, the rest of the gang have taken to their axes with renewed vigour.

So Sonic Youth sound at least a decade a younger here, and, what’s more, positively catchy. “Jams Run Free” sports an infectious bass hook, played totally straight, bereft of the crystal picking I’d come to expect of Thurston and Lee after 2004’s sublime Sonic Nurse. Mark a check by the predictable feedback squall, but what’s most pleasantly surprising, is how that tumultuous, unruly wave suddenly blossoms into high intensity pulse bomb guitar figures, the splinters stripped off the notes, the energy of the piece focused, yet intuitive, the Youth coming up for air with a song that manages overarching lushness, but not at the expense of its innate Verlainisms.

Some may miss the altogether subtler approach deployed on the last two studio records, but, come on, it’s not like Sonic Youth have suddenly metamorphosed into Boris, or anything. They’ve just rediscovered the noise. And the noise sounds good.

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