With the addition of Michigan drummer Steve Shelley, New York noise pop pioneers Sonic Youth found the perfect mix of experimental chaos and rock and roll structure on their underrated fourth album, EVOL. Released in March of 1986 on SST Records, the album utilizes Shelley’s tight, propulsive percussion work to reign in the raucous guitar mania of the band’s two six-string geniuses, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo.
Opening cut “Tom Violence” demonstrates the band’s new approach perfectly with its forward beat and simultaneously dissonant and melodic chord progression. “My violence is a dream,” Thurston croons over Kim Gordon’s minimal but forceful bass line; the song descends into a controlled thundercloud of dual guitar cacophony before quickly scaling back into the second verse. Kim steals the show on the Hitchcock noir-tinged “Shadow Of A Doubt”, a cavernous and melancholy gem filled with whispered vocals and gently plucked, overlapping guitar lines. “Met a stranger on a train,” she sighs, “Bumped right into me. Swear I didn’t mean, swear it wasn’t meant to be… Must have been a dream from a thousand years ago.” The album’s first and only single, “Star Power” is a surprisingly catchy pop tune, featuring a seductive Kim vocal and powerfully effective rock drumming from Shelley. Its breakdown section is filled with paranoid, atmospheric energy instead of shapeless noise thanks to the now perfectly gelling rhythm section.
The Lee Ranaldo-penned “In The Kingdom #19”, however, is a free form melting pot of clanging treated guitar, noisy tape loops, and surrealist, Beat-inspired poetry. Ranaldo’s brisk voice describes a violent highway car accident with a cool yet fierce delivery over the barely-controlled guitar chaos. (“Death on the highway… words crumble around me and fall with the weight of heaven.”) Side A ends on the progressive discord of “Green Light”, another off-kilter experimental rock tune featuring a brief but effective vocal from Thurston.
Side B opens with the instrumental “Death To Our Friends”, a churning and burning noise rock stomper that best demonstrates the newfound musical chemistry between Shelley’s drumming and the carefully planned guitar tangents of Thurston and Lee. Kim’s “Secret Girl” opens with the internal banging of an upright piano, segueing into an eerie music box piano melody with simple but eerie lyrics about an invisible, possibly dead girl. (“Come and touch me so I know that I’m not there.”) The slow burning “Marilyn Moore” (featuring lyrics co-written by No Wave performance artist Lydia Lunch) is an insular, barely moving drudge through muttered vocals and lazy guitar racket. “Bad baby bitching, she screams at the door,” Thurston moans through the clatter, “Hammer in hand and her head to the floor.” Fun stuff, for sure.
On the album’s classic closing tune “Expressway To Yr. Skull” (aka Madonna, Sean, and Me), Thurston promises to “kill the California girls” and “find the meaning of feeling good.” The song is all road trip energy and whirlwind heat, with Shelley’s drumming holding back the inevitable electric guitar apocalypse… at least until the 2:07 mark. Featuring one of the group’s all-time best freak out jams, the song--regularly performed live to this day--ends EVOL in a fiery, ear-bleed crescendo.
Though Sonic Youth would close out the eighties with two of their undisputed masterpieces, Sister and Daydream Nation, their first album with Steve Shelley is an often-overlooked early classic that cemented both the band’s lineup and trademark sound. EVOL is an indispensable piece of American indie rock history that deserves a second (or first!) chance on your iPod or CD changer.
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