This is one of those rare instances in which the reviewers aren't engaged in ecstatic hyperbole just because one of their long time favorite groups has come out with a new album. The opinions expressed by each and every reviewer are justified. The music requires a few listens to really appreciate what has been done, and I generally find that good music often doesn't jump out as outstanding the first time around. This is old school punk with melody, psychedelic overtones and credible lyrics. Several of the songs are reminiscent of the Stooges (with the exception of The Weirdness) and the Velvet Underground, without being in any way derivative.

So I see they finally got someone who could play bass - up from that Sonic Youth tribute band - but as was the case with Pavement, I guess I just have to accept the fact that Sonic Youth are never going to get someone who brings as much to the vocals and lyrics as those boys bring to the guitars. As usual, the vocals and lyrics often make the small hairs tingle with embarrassment. This stuff would have been wretched for a junior high punk band in 1981, but now, it's just mystifying. This band has made the most challenging, the hardest rocking, the most beautiful and ecstatic music by any rock band over the past 25 years. The guitars, especially, are like nothing else in rock. You have to go outside of rock altogether to find music that has this brilliant richness of texture. So why do the lyrics often sound like my ten-year-old son when he's trying to insult one of cartoon characters he's watching? Or like the diary entries of an entitled and angry teenaged girl who really should be reading more and writing less? When I first started listening to the band 30 or so years ago I passed all this off as some species of adolescent snarky, anti-beauty abrasiveness thing - an aesthetic, mind you, that was fresh about a century ago. I assumed they would outgrow it. Over the years it became almost endearing, like the one puzzling but disturbing flaw in some otherwise amazing and beloved friend. Oh well. The music still hunts you, pins you down, and demands that you listen, really listen, and every once in a while, there's something like bliss - too rare in this noisy, stupid world.

Having loved the classic SY of the late 80's/early 90's, this album had the warm, familiar feeling of an old friend. A slightly depressed, drugged-out friend, but one who's fun to hang out with all the same.

The album starts off in fine fashion with the driving beat and aggressive Gordon vocals of "Sacred Trickster." The second track "Anti-Orgasm" stumbles a little with some clumsy political lyrics. After that, the "The Eternal" settles into a brooding, fuzzed out jam that carries through to the end. "Antenna" sounds like a mix of Slint and the My Bloody Valentine song "Cupid Come." "No Way" is a great track that harks back to melodic Daydream Nation songs like "Candle." "Walkin Blue" has a catchy opening riff and great guitar work thoughout. The album ends with "Massage The History," where Kim Gordon's straining whisper and aging voice give the song a spooky, otherworldly feeling.

What I always loved about SY was the way they could set a mood, and The Eternal does as well as any album in their catalog. SY isn't breaking new ground here, but they're doing what they do well.

I usually like half the songs on each SY CD, but I like just about everything here. Avoids both the annoying sonic dissonance and off-key vocals that seem to infect each album, and instead focuses on what they do best -- driving tempos and strong guitar work.

It really doesn't seem like three years have passed since Sonic Youth released "Rather Ripped." In those three years a lot has changed for the band, most notably a new record label (Matador) and the addition of former Pavement bassist Mark Ibold to their fold. Their first record for Matador, "The Eternal" is a definitive statement of Sonic Youth circa now condensing every element of their no-wave sound into one expansive album.

"The Eternal" was written in Northhampton, MA and recorded in Hoboken, NJ by John Agnello and Aaron Mullan who captured the dissonance and grace of the elite NYC group. The twelve tracks that comprise "The Eternal" while reflective as a sort chronology of the band also references subjects such as artist Yves Klein on "Sacred Trickster" and 60's Berlin model Uschi Obermeier on "Anti-Orgasm," one of the album's early stand-out tracks. Other heavily rotated tracks include, "Antenna" and the Britney Spears inspired "Malibu Gas Station."

It's evident on "The Eternal" that Sonic Youth refuse to become a band that compromises its sound or interests for whatever trends are readily adopted by the masses. They seem to possess a special something that they pay homage to in their songs, that something called integrity.