The Eternal - 6 Months Later
 

How has your opinion of this release evolved in that time frame then?

It remains fantastic. "Massage the History" is still breathtaking. "What We
Know" still headbutts concrete into powder. "Leaky Lifeboat" still evokes the
sun gods. And "Thunderclap" is still saved by the "yeah yeah yeah"s and the "whoa
oh oh"s.

I find that seeing them a few times on the tour has changed what I feel about certain songs; I really appreciate the power of "No Way"--I actually think it sounds better on record, though. "Calming the Snake" live, conversely, is superior to the album version--without those superfluous echoes on her vocals, Kim is free to shred a siren song. It seems only a partially realized track in retrospect.

There is nothing on The Eternal that plumbs the depths of "Sleepin' Around."

Holds up better than any SY record this century outside of Sonic Nurse.

it's still incredible. Seriously. Probably my favorite SY album since MURRAY STREET.

I still love it. It sounds like they're having a lot of fun, which translates into an overall high-energy listening experience. Hell, I can even get into 'Thunderclap' now, and I feel bad it's disappeared from set lists. It might be a little overshadowed by the superior material it accompanies, but it's still fun, and the interlude has some killer shred tones...

i went from really liking the first month it came out, then held off listening to it for a while (i think i might have ran through it fifty times in that first month), and now i'm back to really liking it again. the whole album just sounds very rejuvenated and it's great to see how enthusiastic they are playing it live. "sacred trickster"/"massage the history" has to be one of their best opening/closing combos ever, lee's songs are both incredibly solid, mark's basslines are groovalicious, kim's vocals haven't sounded this good on record in a while (and live on "calming the snake"...wowee!), thurston dun damn good, especially on "leaky lifeboat" (those harmonics!) and "antenna" (still my favorite song on the album), steve is beastin' it as always, etc etc. so many new things to love about this one with each listen.

Me too.

Best album that I've heard this year.

i think it's an excellent album, my mind doesn't usually change about records very often though

I still think its a great album, I always will.

I feel exactly the opposite. So much better live!


I'm not sure if it's because of the vocals, but I agree. So much better live!

Maybe the fact that these two tracks have been at the beginnings of the set lists give them some extra live "oopmh."

I loved it initially, then I grew to appreciate it even more as I heard it more and more. Now it is my fave since sonic nurse.

lee rules all.

it's alright

There are some good tracks but this one never spent as much time in my CD player as any of the others. I've listened to it the least amount of times and never felt myself needing to go back to it so much. It's the first album I can safely accuse them of treading water on. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Still love it. What's amazing is how it sounds live. Usually with a live performance the music loose it's edge it's raw sound not this one. It's a tribute to the band that they can play it spot on and not get sloppy like other bands (ie: Rolling Stones)

i initially thought of it as a great sy record.... i then thought of it as almost a perfect sy record..i now believe it to be in their top 3 releases of all time and the album of the year...nuff said!

I like it, but yesterday I was listening to some previous albums like nurse / dirty / ddn. and I think the eternal deserves four points out of six. still quite enjoyable after six months. leaky lifeboat - the best!

3 songs are quite ok, all in all its boring.

dear sy.

im sorry for being such a dick about the eternal before.

i wrote the words anti-orgasm on a page of random lyrics/crap months before i found out you had the same idea, so i cant use it, cos i waited too long. but anyway. you did a great job. anti orgasm is exactly the direction i wanted you to go in. away from that rather ripped stuff. malibu gas station is cool. but your just reusing stock pile sonic riffs and bits, this is what i found lame. not that anything i say should matter. i wish you would get weirder and do something experimental, nothing you've done has been actually experimental since bad moon rising. i mean its called experimental by people but it isnt actually doing any experiments. i wish you didnt put the punk and the rock back into no wave. i wish i had your money and equipment.

absolutely

What about all of those SYR releases?

Or NYCGF.....oh Christ what have I started?

But yeah.....in a way, I agree with you.....although I really do love Eternal....it creates a mood, is so well paced.....strong songwriting all round.

But I'm always wishing that "SYR" stuff and "normal" stuff can go on the same cd.

Haven't listened to it in a few months. Pretty cool album though.

uh? well, there were, lets say, 10 such albums after bad moon rising. nycgf for ex.

the rest - i agree, more experiments. i consider the eternal to be a quite good album, but thats only what my brain says, my soul is not involved, and so - im bored. but - what else could i hear? Evan the worst shit from sy sounds better than all the other crap, i heard the new band from joshe homme recently and almost threw up, its sounded so terrible stupid.

the problem there is you are paying attention to what josh homme does.

you need to unplug from that level its all bullshit and of no consequence.

if you take sy as a punk rock band, as they take themselves then they make more sense. as a band on the fringes of the mainstream trying to function in that milleu then- if that was were i was looking then they'd prob me my favourite band. but this is not how they see themselves. there are literally fucking thousands of bands putting out stuff better than sy each year but they have no exposure at the josh homme/snl type level. this is the level of bullshit and were you must be trained unconcioussly to instantly ignore should it get in your face.

arguably all sy have done is put the rock back into no wave and retroactively mined pre no wave music for influences, ending up the punk rock grateful dead.

goo and sister are cool, but they are just 2 records among millions of more interesting records i havent heard yet

A really great record, I like it a lot and it has grown on me since initial listens. I do hope they don't settle into this niche for the next few albums though, as they sound very cosy on The Eternal. Its a safe record to put out, and who can blame them considering how much they have given to experimental music...but still, am hoping the next one has a bit more fire.

they are not a punk rock band, not at all. and i dont care about mainstream or not, its all mainstream. there is no better band out there yet. there is better music out there, but it's not a band-thing.

GREAT records will always be GREAT records... And that means the eternal will always be GREAT,'' just like the maker's of the eternal..... SONIC YOUTH!!

its still not that good to me, i hardly listen to it. infact i have never heard it all the way through without getting tired of it.

I didn't listen it since august. kinda "I really don't want to"...

later.

its a good record. not washing machine good, but 'hey we're old now' good

Please elaborate. ie How is this "hey we're old now"?

Skuj is so awesome.

Sorry, I felt like saying.

see thats how i feel. its just a bit too safe and when i see the solo stuff (bar thurstons crappy record) i just think they could do better.

it means "hey we're old now". it's not as experimental or all over the place as their earlier albums because they've done that already. because.. they're older. hence.. "hey we're old now"

which does nothing but make the album sound better. at least they're not beating a dead horse. they're just making the horse sound poppy

Hmmmmm.....

I dunno.

I agree with the comment regarding the lack of necrohippoflagellation, and, it certainly is a "song" record.....with choruses and shit.......but poppy? Radioplay?

I just don't see how "age" is the big factor here. Maybe the next album will be a gigantic fuck you. How old do they sound on the last couple of SYR releases?

I'm not trying to be a dick. I'm just interested in these comments, especially as a 47yr old, hahaha.....

i really enjoy it. my favorite is malibu gas station, i love those clean chords at the beginning that continue throughout the song.
the only problem is that there really are no memorable guitar parts (other than the aforementioned one)
all their records had these, at least their earlier records, had these great guitar lines that everyone would remember and try to play, like teenage riot, diamond sea, expressway, catholic block, and this record is really them chugging away at power chords the whole time. the earlier albums had much more focus on what the instruments are playing and here they just backup the singing for the most part.
its still a great record

I+still+think+it's+a+great+record.+I+am+also+tired +of+them+as+a+band.+that's+for+entirely+personal+r easons,+though.

Oddly enough I didn't really like it the first time I listened to it. Maybe it's because I'm one of those rare people who is completely obsessed with Rather Ripped from start to finish, really one of my two favorite records by the band. I know it's a terrible thing to come into a new record with preconceived notions and prejudices and I have sufficiently chastised myself for doing this.

However, for some reason I decided to listen to it again a month and for whatever reason fell madly in love with it. I don't know how I missed the first time how fucking righteously it RAWKS! And I've been devouring it ever since, so I was kind of late on it.

I enjoy it, but I question how much I'll still enjoy or listen to it in a year, or even six months.

I've listened to the record about eight or so times (Probably more with driving around), and have enjoyed it thoroughly, but has to make a significant mark on me. Maybe with more listens it'll climb the ranks.

~Jeremy~

I didn't know what to say about the Eternal from the begining... i mean it's good... in Trees Outside the Academy kind of way...
Surprisingly i still listen to it and it somehow grows on me.
On the other side, TOTA has been long forgotten...

TOTA is a much better album than The Eternal to my ears.