Neither the new album by
Free Kitten, the long-running on-and-off second band of Sonic Youth's Kim
Gordon, nor Sonic Youth's latest missive from their own experimentally minded
SYR label will likely appeal to anyone who likes Sonic Youth for writing songs
with weird tunings, but they're worth hearing for those who love their more
outré outings. Half of them are, anyway.
Inherit is the more overtly
song-like of the two, with Gordon's murmured vocals and the slow-rise guitar
buzzes and hums as jammy as they are hooky. It crests nicely enough, but its
casualness is sometimes just slack. The big exception is "Surf's Up," which
rides buzzing, classic-rock guitar leads that eventually wash to shore
somewhere different than they began.
J'Accuse Ted Hughes has a similar overall
effect, though its means are different. The 23-minute title track was recorded live
at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in 2001, and while it isn't bad, it also
isn't especially focused. "Agnes B Musique," on the other hand, is an old
studio jam (recorded with former SY member Jim O'Rourke) that showcases the
band at its most frosty-pretty psychedelic—dense, relaxed, and the kind
of thing SY does better than anyone.