Sonic Youth – Murray Street LP

Limited vinyl LP pressing. 2002 album by the alt/experimental-rock pioneers. Named after the New York street where their studio was situated – and where a plane engine landed on September 11, 2001 – Murray Street is potent, accessible, daring, and often obliteratingly lovely. For a start, the first three songs (“The Empty Page, ” “Disconnection Notice, ” and “Rain On Tin”) easily rank with the highlights of SY’s previous 15 albums. Obliquely melancholic, tuneful but unorthodox, all are enriched by great cascades of intricate three-guitar noise. Murray Street was the first album by the band to feature Jim O’Rourke as an official fifth member to bolster the group’s sound.