Sister (Sonic Youth album)

Sister is the fourth album by alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released in 1987 on SST Records. It was re-released in late 1994 on DGC.

The album furthers the band's move away from noise rock towards more traditional pop structures, while maintaining an aggressively experimental approach. It received universally-positive reviews. A loose concept album (like its follow-up Daydream Nation), Sister was in part inspired by the life and works of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. (The "sister" of the title was Dick's fraternal twin, who died shortly after her birth, and whose memory haunted Dick his entire life.) The album features aggressive noise songs such as "White Cross" and "Catholic Block," plus haunting noir ode "Pacific Coast Highway". The group has regularly played songs such as "Schizophrenia," "White Cross" and "Kotton Krown" long after the album's release. CD bonus track "Master-Dik" is a strange rap song which mentions Ciccone Youth; its title is a reference to New York City mastering facility Masterdisk. As usual, Moore and Gordon handled most of the vocal duties on the album, but Ranaldo sang "Pipeline/Kill Time".

The album was recorded entirely on analog tube equipment, giving it its characteristic "warm" vintage feel. Videos were shot for "Beauty Lies In The Eye" and "Stereo Sanctity." The black-and-white "Stereo Sanctity" video, featuring clips of whirring factory machinery and brief live shots of the band, can only be seen on a rare 1980s SST video compilation entitled Over 35 Videos Never Before Released.

The black area on the front cover was originally the photograph "Sandra Bennett, twelve year old, Rocky Ford, Colorado, August 23, 1980" [1] taken by Richard Avedon, but was removed after the threat of a lawsuit. At first the picture was merely covered up with a black sticker, but on later pressings, it was deleted. The same was done with a photo of Disney's Magic Kingdom on the back cover [2]. Very early promotional posters and pressings of the album do feature these photos, but later ones do not. The DGC CD edition features the Magic Kingdom photo, but it is partially obscured by the barcode [3].

Pitchfork Media named Sister the fourteenth best album of the 1980's.^[1] NME rated it number eighty in their 'Greatest Albums of All-Time' list, and number thirty-seven in their '50 Greatest Albums of the 80's' list.^[2] In July 1995, Alternative Press magazine voted Sister the third best album of the decade spanning 1985–1995.^[3]

Track listing

All songs written by Sonic Youth, except where indicated.

1. "Schizophrenia" (lyrics/vocals Gordon and Moore) – 4:38
2. "(I Got A) Catholic Block" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 3:26
3. "Beauty Lies in the Eye" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 2:20
4. "Stereo Sanctity" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 3:50
5. "Pipeline/Kill Time" (lyrics/vocals Ranaldo) – 4:35
6. "Tuff Gnarl" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 3:15
7. "Pacific Coast Highway" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 4:18
8. "Hot Wire My Heart" (Johnny Strike) (vocals Moore, Gordon, and Ranaldo) – 3:23
9. "Kotton Krown"^a (lyrics/vocals Gordon and Moore) – 5:08
10. "White Kross"^b (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 2:59

CD bonus track

11. "Master-Dik" – 5:10

Notes

a.^ This track was named "Kotton Krown" on the original SST/Blast First release, but was renamed "Cotton Crown" on the DGC reissue and subsequent Blast First releases.

b.^ This track was named "White Kross" on the original SST/Blast First release, but was renamed "White Cross" on the DGC reissue and subsequent Blast First releases.

Personnel

• Lee Ranaldo – guitar, vocals
• Kim Gordon – bass guitar, guitar, vocals
• Thurston Moore – guitar, vocals, Moog synthesizer
• Steve Shelley – drums, programming
• Walter Sear – programming
• Bill Titus – engineer

References

1. ^ Pitchfork: Staff Lists: Top 100 Albums of the 1980s. November 20, 2002. "Sister was the last time Sonic Youth spent the majority of an album in full-on Attack Mode, which explains why it's the fist-clenchers' SY album of choice. The word of the day is 'aggressive', with the album's humid production throwing a blanket over the noise to convert all instrumentation and vocalization into power-tool percussion. You can hear the clenched teeth through 'Catholic Block' and 'White Cross', the grinding machinery on 'Pacific Coast Highway'. Stranded in the midst, 'Cotton Crown' still stands as the band's most romantic moment, frustrating evidence that Thurston and Kim should've sang together far more often. Sister was the last burst of Sonic Youth's early stage before they molted and moved on to bigger labels and bigger audiences, but for those with a preference for their grainy-footage early days, it's their zenith." --Rob Mitchum
2. ^ Rocklist: NME: Greatest Albums of the 60's, 70's and 80's. Retrieved February 3, 2011
3. ^ Rocklist: Alternative Press: Top 99 of '85 to '95. Retrieved February 3, 2011