| The fourth release in Sonic Youth's series of experimental excursions, Goodbye 20th Century could be a stubborn broadside against the critics that lambasted the Youth's last proper album, A Thousand Leaves, for being too safe. No danger of that here, though; Goodbye 20th Century is a tribute to the Century's avant-garde artists, reprising tracks by the likes of John Cage, Yoko Ono and Christian Wolff. So, far-out is definitely in--tracks vary from a sprawling, thirty-minute take on Cage's eerie, hyper-minimal "Four" to a thirteen-second cover of Yoko's "Voice Piece For Soprano"--essentially, Thurston and Kim's daughter screaming three times into the microphone. The most interesting track of Goodbye 20th Century also comes as a CD ROM film--a cover of George Maciunas' "Piano Piece 13 (Carpenter's Piece)", it consists of the Youth hammering nails into the keys of their studio piano. Sadly, though, even they don't seem to be having a lot of fun. Goodbye 20th Century is not for the faint-hearted. --Louis Pattison |
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