Evol

7.5	Rating (52 ratings)

Add to favorites

Edit page

Buy at Amazon

Performed by

Sonic Youth

Lists

64 votes

2,020 Albums You Must Hear Before the World Ends (2020 items)
list by ToonHead2102

Published 8 years, 6 months ago

7 comments

14 votes

Favorite Albums of All Time (137 items)
list by Avid Admirer

Published 10 years, 7 months ago

2 comments

8 votes

Albums Heard in 2020 (295 items)
list by CD Smiles

Published 5 years, 2 months ago

1 comment

4 votes

RS: 40 Greatest Punk Albums of All-Time (40 items)
list by JxSxPx

Published 7 years ago

2 votes

Favorite Albums (30 items)
list by slaark

Published 1 month, 1 week ago

View all Evol lists

Evol Videos

Sonic Youth - Evol (1986)

48 Views

Added 9 years ago

View all Evol videos

Pictures

View all Evol pictures

Description: EVOL is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released in 1986 on SST Records, and recorded and mixed by New York recording icon Martin Bisi. The album cover features a picture of Lung Leg, a still taken from Submit to Me, a film by Richard Kern. The album is notable for being the first with new drummer Steve Shelley, replacing Bob Bert, and for showing signs of the band transitioning away from their noise-rock past and toward a greater rock sensibility. It was the first album by the band released on the SST label. By 1986, label founder Greg Ginn was anxious for SST to move away from its American EVOL is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released in 1986 on SST Records, and recorded and mixed by New York recording icon Martin Bisi. The album cover features a picture of Lung Leg, a still taken from Submit to Me, a film by Richard Kern. The album is notable for being the first with new drummer Steve Shelley, replacing Bob Bert, and for showing signs of the band transitioning away from their noise-rock past and toward a greater rock sensibility. It was the first album by the band released on the SST label. By 1986, label founder Greg Ginn was anxious for SST to move away from its American hardcore roots, and signing Sonic Youth was an undeniably important step for the label, as well as for the band.

The record marks the second straight for the band in which it had worked with New York singer/performance artist Lydia Lunch. Lunch had shared vocal duties on Bad Moon Rising's "Death Valley '69" and on this record she co-wrote the tune "Marilyn Moore". "Shadow of a Doubt" takes a great part of its lyrical imagery from the Hitchcock film Strangers on a Train: "Met a stranger on a train/you'll kill him and I'll kill her/swear it wasn't meant to be".

Mike Watt played bass on the track "In the Kingdom #19". The band encouraged him to play it shortly after the fellow bandmember D. Boon of Minutemen died in a car crash. Coincidentally, the song is also about a car crash. Watt had entered a severe depression following Boon's death and was considering leaving behind his career in music. He credits the time he spent with the members of Sonic Youth during the recording of EVOL as a major factor in his deciding to re-enter the music world.

On the vinyl format of the album, the time length for "Expressway to Yr. Skull" was indicated by the symbol for infinity; the final moment of the song featured a locked groove, making it theoretically endless. The CD format added a bonus track: the band's cover of the Kim Fowley tune "Bubblegum". According to Mike Watt, he and Steve Shelley played the basic rhythm track over the actual Kim Fowley record, which was afterwards removed when the other members added their parts.

One single, a radio edit of "Star Power", was released from the album, with "Bubblegum" and an edited "Expressway to Yr. Skull" as B-sides. ... (more)

Manufacturer: SST
Release date: 27 May 1986
EAN: 0720642451328 UPC: 720642451328

Tags: 1986 (3), 1980s (2), Indie (1), Rock (1), 1980's (1), Noise (1), American (1), Alt Rock (1), Music Mecca 9 (1), Album (1), M (1), Sonic Youth (1)

My tags:

Add tags

Update feed

slaark added this to a list 1 month, 1 week ago

Favorite Albums (30 music items)

antonio894 rated this 8/10 1 month, 3 weeks ago

Darth Brutus rated this 8/10 2 years, 5 months ago

Bruno II rated this 7/10 2 years, 5 months ago

slaark rated this 8/10 2 years, 10 months ago

kyeo added this to list 3 years, 4 months ago

fdlm4000 rated this 7/10 4 years, 2 months ago

Ueno_Station54 rated this 8/10 4 years, 7 months ago

CD Smiles rated this 5/10 4 years, 7 months ago

CD Smiles added this to a list 4 years, 7 months ago

Albums Heard in 2020 (295 music items)

(Insert name) rated this 7/10 6 years, 1 month ago

JxSxPx added this to a list 7 years ago

RS: 40 Greatest Punk Albums of All-Time (40 music items)

"With their third album, the New York crew set themselves on a course to becoming the most important noise band of the past three decades. Amp-torture clinics like "Starpower" and "Expressway to Yr Skull" explore what bassist Kim Gordon had called "the darkness shimmering beneath the shiny quilt of American pop culture.""

Aftermat rated this 8/10 7 years, 5 months ago

ToonHead2102 rated this 9/10 7 years, 8 months ago

ToonHead2102 added this to a list 7 years, 8 months ago

2,020 Albums You Must Hear Before the World Ends (2020 music items)

"EVOL (1986) SONIC YOUTH Review coming soon... FAV TRACKS: "Shadow of a Doubt"; "Bubblegum"; "Madonna, Sean and Me"; "Death to Our Friends"; "In the Kingdom #19"; "Secret Girl"; "Green Light"; "Marilyn Moore"; "Starpower"; "Tom Violence" "

draven65 rated this 8/10 8 years, 1 month ago

LWinters rated this 9/10 8 years, 7 months ago

Pandoras Folly rated this 7/10 8 years, 9 months ago

Listened to
Condition
Added date
Private notes Only visible to you
or cancel