Release Date: February 15, 2011
Only a handful of bands and artists, such as Beastie Boys and R.E.M., can say they’ve been relevant for 30 years. Sonic Youth is one of them. But for some reason (perhaps, to keep their hipster cred) they’ve recently scored the French film “Simon Werner a Disparu,” which in English is titled “Lights Out.”
What initially sounds like a collection of instrumental warm-up songs from their masterpiece Daydream Nation, the soundtrack attempts to give listeners an inside look into what the characters in the film are like.
The film’s plot, which sounds like a bad episode of “Law and Order,” revolves around a group of teens in suburban Paris who start to go missing after discovering a dead body in the forest.
The ominous guitars along with the overused echo and reverb effects were brilliant in the late ’80s and early ’90s, but at this point it’s hard to find anything new about Simon Werner. So much for being an “original” soundtrack.
A lack of vocals from lead singer and guitarist Thurston Moore don’t do the soundtrack any favors either. On previous albums, when the feedback proved to be too much to handle at times, Moore was there to save the day with his calm, smooth and comforting voice.
However, the band wasn’t trying to make another concept album. They were trying to score a film, and they succeeded in doing so. The group approached Simon Werner with a different mindset than they have in previous efforts. This music wasn’t for them, it was for a film.
This collection of songs can’t be compared to most of the group’s earlier work, but it does give an idea of what these crazy teens in suburbia are like. The opening track, “Theme de Jeremie,” is full of the same, intense two-chord progression before abruptly merging into a mellow, surf rock-style guitar solo. From the sound of it, Jeremie is a weird guy.
But the songs all have the same, or at least similar, structure and sound. This isn’t a step back for Sonic Youth, but it’s by no means progress.
Simon Werner is Sonic Youth’s version of a mid-life crisis. It’s a desperate attempt to maintain the weird charm that’s kept fans loyal for three decades.
The band carved a niche for themselves as the gods of noise rock. But writing their third original film score is a sign of two things: boredom and a lack of creativity. The band has already written soundtracks for the films “Made In The USA” and “SubUrbia.” They’re relying on a script to stimulate them.There’s nothing wrong with being inspired by another piece of art, but Sonic Youth didn’t make this music because they wanted to, the band made it because it fit the mood of the film.
After 30 years of shaping the alt-rock landscape, it’s only fair to give the band a free pass on an album. But at the same time, when a band is capable of making music that defined a genre, they should be held to a higher standard. They’ve contributed too much to the progression of alternative rock to lower themselves to plateau making soundtracks.
Sonic Youth – Simon Werner a Disparu tracklist
- “Thème de Jérémie”
- “Alice et Simon”
- “Les Anges au piano”
- “Chez Yves (Alice et Clara)”
- “Jean-Baptiste à la fenêtre”
- “Thème de Laetitia”
- “Escapades”
- “La Cabane au Zodiac”
- “Dans les bois / M. Rabier”
- “Jean-Baptiste et Laetitia”
- “Thème de Simon”
- “Au Café”
- “Thème d’Alice (CD Bonus Track)”
