Ciccone Youth "The Whitey Album" (Geffen)
By Lucas Salg
Friday. Mar 31, 12:06 AM
A 53-minute inside joke: for completists only.

"Acclaimed and influential?" Come on guys. Definitely the least essential of Geffen's mostly awesome Sonic Youth reissues, Ciccone Youth is a one-off late-1980s side project that allowed the Youth to indulge their pop culture jones and fuck around with beatboxing. Supposedly born out of their desire to cover the entirety of the White Album, what you've got here instead is Sonic Youth at their weirdest and most directionless (with nary a Beatles reference to be found). Which isn't to say there aren't a few gems among the detritus: Mike Watt's meek trucker-jam cover of Madge's "Burnin' Up" is still a riot, Thurston's rework of "Into the Groove" is dumb fun, and "Platoon II" and "Macbeth" are out-of-place but modestly rewarding ambient jams that would sound right at home on an SYR release.

Unfortunately, the bulk of The Whitey Album is comprised of dead-end experiments like "Me & Jill/Hendrix Cosby," which runs a boring spoken-word piece straight into a listless jazz-funk instrumental, or cringe-worthy faux-hop like "Tuff Titty Rap," which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that no one in Sonic Youth should be allowed to rap ever again. Basically, listening to this record is like having your friends tell a 53-minute inside joke: parts of it might be funny, but there's no way you can really appreciate it if you weren't there the first time around. Really, this one is ONLY recommended for completists: you know who you are.
www.sonicyouth.com
www.geffen.com

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Lucas Salg

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