Track Listing

1. (She's In A) Bad Mood
2. Protect Me You
3. Freezer Burn/ I Wanna Be Your Dog
4. Shaking Hell
5. Inhuman
6. The World Looks Red
7. Confusion Is Next
8. Making The Nature Scene
9. Lee Is Free
10. Kill Yr. Idols
11. Brother James
12. Early American
13. Shaking Hell

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56170 in Music
• Released on: 2005-11-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 51 minutes

Customer Reviews

Confusion is next, and next after that is...
Confusion is Sex is brilliant. As you listen to this record, just imagine these sounds emanating from a scummy New York rehearsal space. What were they thinking? Why did they decide to devote their lives to making this claustrophobic, cataclysmic and challenging music? Well, hopefully because no one else was going to do it, and because it's good. Sure, it's very hard to listen to, but that difficulty is proportional to the reward you get for putting in that effort. Sure, it will sound like noise to anyone who isn't aware of Sonic Youth, but it's not. This is a great rock n' roll band who, here, are deconstructing the very building blocks of popular music, splitting the atom, so to speak. They have taken the musical note APART, and in so doing have discovered riffs and tunes that exist beyond the limitations of the standard 12 note stave. The performances are flawless, and maintain the beat even when there are no drums or bass leading the way. They may be hitting their strings with all kinds of things, they may even have modified their instruments, but they were reproducing these noises perfectly and repeatedly time after time, pulling subtle tunes out of abrasive noise.

Confusion is Sex is impassioned, inspirational and visionary. Just imagine what might have happened if Sonic Youth had ever ventured outside the standard 4/4 time signature... I've been racking my brain, but I don't think they ever have!

Let me just say: this is NOT a place to start your discovery of Sonic Youth's music. For introductory level albums get Washing Machine, Dirty or Goo. Washing Machine really is the most accessible Sonic Youth album I know. Dirty is Sonic Youth does Nirvana. And Goo is probably the most punk Sonic Youth album. Go forth and start exploring.

If you already like Sonic Youth, why are you even reading these reviews? You know you're going to get it anyway!

the sound of nightmares
dischordant, atonal, fuzzy.... truely unique. ive honestly had nightmares with these songs playing in my head.

challenging, groundbreaking, essential
I have to disagree with the previous reviewer. As a MASSIVE lifelong SY fan, I am beginning to think this is their best record. It is a brilliant achievement. Remember that Lydia Lunch quote about SY "how do you sculpt a hurricane into sound?" This is what she was talking about. Sure, it is more atonal, more abrasive, more uncomfortable and more serious than any of their other work. There's no goofy ironic pissing about here, as would come later. This is SY carrying on the NYC art rock lineage - Velvets, the new wave and No Wave - and taking it somewhere else entirely.

When you put on the CD you will enter a domain of extreme emotional expression, the music rocks in a different way, with a different palate of gtr soundz. This is so much more exciting and interesting than any other No Wave stuff I have heard, with the exception of one Red Transistor song I heard in 93 and never again...

Just to pick out a few ultra-highlights: (She's in a) Bad Mood - the opening track - is itself a cosmic voyage, a cathartic trip. Shaking Hell starts out as the classic "subway train groove" before morphing into a dread symphony. Inhuman and Kill Yr Idols - both total killer rocker classics in my book.

How wonderful that a major label is putting this out! Ha!