#184: Sonic Nurse

Ranking The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far (2025)

Sonic Youth, 2004

Sonic Youth will always be an all-time band. They are a presence larger than the songs they write, the albums they put out. They are part of the “before” bands, as in, “before x, music was y.” They shifted how people thought of music, especially indie music, until that time. They are a band that inspired bands. They shifted what music would sound like to bands that came after them.

It would take a long time for Sonic Youth to become a household name, but by 1996 they were appearing as themselves in an episode of The Simpsons (“Homerpalooza”). They had made their mark but there was still more to come, and post-2000 Sonic Youth albums are some of their most interesting releases. Murray Street, released in 2002, was the first to feature fifth member Jim O’Rourke, and has a more melodic sound. It’s also my favourite post-2000 album, though it is somewhat subdued compared to the experimental noise-rock that preceded it. Sonic Nurse was next, in 2004, and it’s here that they merge the two sounds: it’s edgy and experimental art-rock but also melodic and groove-like in places, and sounds more like a return to the early 90s sound after their major label breakthrough.

But this is a legendary band, and anything they put out is remarkable. I am more a fan of the guitar experiments of Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo than the chaos-bringing Kim Gordon, but each song is vital to their sound and the flow of each album, providing a contrast between art and noise. I am probably being too harsh, though the fourth track here, “Kim Gordon and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream,” is just one step too far for me, and I have been skipping it (it’s just as challenging as the title suggests).

Sonic Youth’s best songs are some of my favourites, too: “Teenage Riot,” “Hoar Frost,” “Diamond Sea,” “Sugar Kane.” In the 2000s, “Incinerate,” from 2006’s Rather Ripped, joins that list. Murray Street was always an album-length meditation, and didn’t have any standouts for my playlists, but Sonic Nurse has several, now; I am not sure how I missed this album upon its initial release, but in hindsight, I must have owned a physical copy of Murray Street at some point whereas Sonic Nurse didn’t make the cut at the time.

At any rate, Sonic Nurse is another all-time album. It’s got the trademark Sonic Youth experimental art-rock sound, the minor chords and jarring changes from verse to bridge to chorus; it’s got gorgeous riffs and bass lines but also feedback and fuzz, and the aforementioned chaos agent Kim Gordon throwing curveballs. My favourites ones off here are “Dripping Dream,” “Stones,” “Dude Ranch Nurse,” Paper Cup Exit,” and “I Love You Golden Blue.” “Paper Cup Exit” is a great example of everything Sonic Youth, and how they’re still relevant nearly 45 years after their formation. It goes through multiple changes, quiet-loud-quiet, with a catchy chorus and a buildup to a denouement. The lyrics, as always, are inscrutable, but there is something new, a repeated refrain of “just as long as you sing / as you sing, sing along.” It stands out to me, this invocation, as different, though isn’t a departure from the core Sonic Youth sound.

This album and these songs are just as Sonic Youth-like as anything, and shows that they were still making new music and creating new ideas in the 2000s just as they had in the 80s. It’s naturally more mature, as the quiet moments, for instance in “I Love You Golden Blue,” are more melodic than it would have been on earlier albums. Eight of the ten songs on here are 5+ minutes, but you don’t notice the length, you understand the journey through the tracks, through the album, and each song is exactly what it needs to be. This is a great album, and a great band!