Sonic Youth was formed in 1981 and created 15 albums before their breakup in 2011. Their discography bursts open with 1983’s Confusion is Sex, a disorienting no-wave album with a terrifying atmosphere. This isn’t an album to throw on in the car – listening to it is the activity. After this album came Bad Moon Rising, EVOL, and Sister, before Sonic Youth switched gears entirely and released Daydream Nation. They never returned to this melody-sparse kind of music. However, even with the abrasiveness and anxiety-inducing nature of these albums, I still think they’re masterpieces. Specifically, 1985’s Bad Moon Rising. 

Bad Moon Rising is a droning, atmospheric album that’s difficult to place in space and time. What I mean by that is that it’s difficult to believe this was released in the same year as Talking Heads’ Little Creatures. Let the bassline to Television Man play a few times and then switch to Satan is Boring. You’re immediately torn from quirky, bouncing sounds to the pit of Tartarus. Weak in the joints, disoriented, and with nothing to do but adapt. 

From Intro to Echo Canyon, this album doesn’t weaken its grip on you. There’s no concrete melody. Riffs spark out in a sea of droning noise and then disappear as quickly as they came. Verses are equally sparse, a minute-long oasis before the instrumental engulfs you again. Thurston Moore stays on one note for most of the dystopian Society Is a Hole, while Kim Gordon repeats the same verse over and over again in a voice somewhere between speaking and singing in Flower. The lyricism is mediocre at times (“Inside my head my dog’s a bear / She was significant / I’m insane” off the creatively named I’m Insane) but when you’re floating in the sea of noise, it’s easy to lose all your judgement.  

The album plays as one long, droning noise-fest, with transitions several minutes long blending songs seamlessly into each other. Some outstanding songs emerging from the sea include Death Valley ‘69, featuring Lydia Lunch. Her high wails overlaying Moore’s monotone push the implied theme of escaping a crime scene in a car. At some point, the song comes to a climax, dissolving into intense, droning noise before Gordon’s bassline kicks the song back into structure. When I listened to Confusion is Sex, I thought a malevolent force was going to rip me from my seat and engulf me. When I listened to this song, I thought I was going to get into a horrific car wreck. 

The intro of Justice is Might also serves as the outro for I’m Insane, a cacophony of fuzzy, layered clips of Moore introducing the song. It’s a glitchy, loud mess. As is most of the album. But I adore it. 

This album isn’t easy to listen to. It’s unlike any Sonic Youth album - it’s unlike any album in general. The overlooked, droning masterpiece of Bad Moon Rising shouldn’t be reserved for cult Sonic Youth fans. It should be a must-hit for music fans like Radiohead’s In Rainbows or Nirvana’s In Utero. If you’re a fan of non-mainstream music, try this album out for sure.