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EVOL

The first album with Steve Shelley, closing with the seven-minute Expressway to Yr. Skull.
Sonic Youth, 1986

Released
May 1986
Recorded
March 1986
Studio
BC Studio, Brooklyn
Label
SST (Blast First in the UK and Europe)
Producer
Sonic Youth and Martin Bisi
Length
36:08

Their first record with Shelley on drums, made at BC Studio in Brooklyn in March 1986. Mike Watt played bass on In the Kingdom #19, and said that time with the band helped him get back to music after D. Boon's death. Lydia Lunch co-wrote Marilyn Moore. The new songs were first played in public in Austin on 12 April 1986, and the only single was Starpower in July 1986. Kevin Kerslake made the video for Shadow of a Doubt.

The CD and cassette added a cover of Kim Fowley's Bubblegum. On vinyl, the closing track Expressway to Yr. Skull is timed as infinity because it ends in a locked groove. AllMusic gave the album 4.5 stars, Pitchfork gave it 9.4, and Pitchfork put it at number 31 on its list of the best albums of the 1980s. Rolling Stone placed it 30th among the 40 greatest punk albums. Pitchfork's Jenn Pelly called it a testament to the virtue of curiosity.

Track listing

  1. Tom Violence3:05
  2. Shadow of a Doubt3:32
  3. Starpower4:48
  4. In the Kingdom #193:24
  5. Green Light3:46
  6. Death to Our Friends3:16
  7. Secret Girl2:54
  8. Marilyn Moore4:04
  9. Expressway to Yr. Skull7:19
  10. Bubblegum (CD and cassette bonus, Kim Fowley cover)2:49

Personnel

More from Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth (1982), Confusion Is Sex (1983), Bad Moon Rising (1985), Sister (1987), Daydream Nation (1988), The Whitey Album (as Ciccone Youth) (1988), Goo (1990), Dirty (1992), Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star (1994), Washing Machine (1995), A Thousand Leaves (1998), NYC Ghosts & Flowers (2000), Murray Street (2002), Sonic Nurse (2004), Rather Ripped (2006), The Eternal (2009)

Sources

  1. EVOL (Sonic Youth album), Wikipedia
  2. Sonic Youth, Wikipedia