Sonic Youth's latest album The Destroyed Room: B-Sides and Rarities starts out predictably enough with a heavy dose of twangy, ambient noise in the song "Fire Engine Dream." The first track is not without a certain driving rhythm, however, and its experimental tone is not without structure. The ample guitar section ascends through twisting mazes of heavy, dizzying sound as the first track winds through its more than ten-minute length without a single vocal interruption. The next track, one called "Fauxhemians," found its inspiration, appropriately enough, in an essay about New York City beat artists.

Less radio-friendly than their two previous albums, "Sonic Nurse" and "Rather Ripped," the album contains excerpts of often very experimental jam sessions from throughout the group's twenty-six year career. It would be the equivalent of Nirvana's less-than-well-known album Incesticide.
Track three, entitled "Razor Blade," a song with Kim Gordon on vocals, has a strange country twinge to it, and I suspect a slide was used on the guitar. It barely tops one minute, an uncharacteristically brief length for a Sonic Youth song. The following track, "Blink," also features Kim on vocals, listlessly whispering her off-the wall lyrics in her classic style to a very mellow musical accompaniment strangely reminiscent of a human heartbeat.

I'd have to say that one of my favorite songs on this album is track seven, "Kim's Chords," an extremely upbeat tune (although it does descend into a more down-tempo section at one point) extracted from jam sessions associated with a much darker record (Sonic Nurse). This track also has some enjoyable soloing by guitarist Lee Ranaldo. Track eight, "Beautiful Plateau," is also an appealing tune, a mournful movement that ends rather abruptly. The tracks on the second half of the album are generally more captivating, and it all culminates in a previously-unreleased, twenty-five minute jam-session version of the band's classic track "The Diamond Sea.."

To tell you the truth, I think this album may turn off all but the most diehard Sonic Youth fans. If you're just getting into these guys I'd suggest Goo (1990), Dirty (1992), A Thousand Leaves (1998), Sonic Nurse (2004), or Rather Ripped (2006).