I must admit to being very wary of SYR releases - SYR2 hardly had me dancing in the aisles - so I approached the Youth's album of covers of avant garde music with some trepidation - and only because Boxman had (may still have) this on sale for £6. I mean, for £6 you can't go wrong with a Sonic Youth double surely?
Well you can. I should start by saying that I don't understand this type of music at all - I had hoped to find some form of rock structure somewhere, but in truth the game is given away by the enhanced CD video of one of the tracks, "Piano Piece #13 (Carpenter's Piece)". Whilst I had naively imagined the band working away in a recording studio, lavishing attention on the tracks, this video shows how it was really done. The "piece" is "played" by the band taking turns at nailing down piano keys throughout its 3 minutes 49 duration.
I can find nothing of interest to me here - it makes SYR2 sound like a pop record. Presumably the Youth are able to release this stuff because Geffen won't touch it with a barge-pole, but really £17 for this? Somebody somewhere is having a good joke.
Unless you already know and love the composers on this record avoid like the plague.