His sister came over / She was out of her mind
Sister is Sonic Youth's fourth album, released in 1987. It marked a further shift away from their no wave beginning, incorporating more pop melodies in their music, while still keeping the aggression and Punk Rock influences of their earlier work. For this reason, the album is generally classified as Noise Pop. It's also a loose Concept Album about the works of Philip K. Dick; The title references his fraternal twin who died at birth, and whose memory haunted him throughout his life. Other aspects of his life and works are referenced in songs like "Schizophrenia".
The album is usually held in high regards by fans and critics alike. Many will say it's on the same level, or is even better, than Daydream Nation. Fan favorites include "Schizophrenia", "Catholic Block", and "White Kross".
Lineup
- Thurston Moore (Guitar, vocals, bass guitar, Moog synthesizer, production)
- Kim Gordon (Bass guitar, vocals, production)
- Lee Ranaldo (Guitar, vocals, production)
- Steve Shelley (Drums, production)
Production
- Bill Titus (Engineering)
- Howie Weinberg (Mastering)
- Walter Sear (Moog programming)
- Lucius Shepard (Sleeve illustration)
Tracklist
Side One
- Schizophrenia (4:38)
- (I Got a) Catholic Block (3:36)
- Beauty Lies in the Eye (2:20)
- Stereo Sanctity (3:50)
- Pipeline/Kill Time (4:35)
Side Two
- Tuff Gnarl (3:15)
- Pacific Coast Highway (4:18)
- Hot Wire My Heart (3:23)
- Kotton Krown (5:08)note
- White Kross (2:49)note
Tropes
- Album Title Drop: In "Schizophrenia":"His sister came over..."
- Title Track: Its working title was "Sister" before being renamed.
- Concept Album: A loose one inspired by the works of Philip K. Dick.
- Cover Version: "Hot Wire My Heart", originally by Punk Rock band Crime.
- Clumsy Copyright Censorship: The artwork shown is a series of photo collages, which included some copyrighted material. Thus the front and back covers have big black bars over the offending pictures. A recent reissue at least replaced the black bar on the back with something more subtle — A conveniently placed bar code that only partially covers it up.
- Downer Ending: "White Kross", both musically and lyrically, particularly coming as it does after the euphoric "Cotton Crown". See Drugs Are Bad below for details.
- Drugs Are Bad: "White Cross" (or "White Kross", depending on the track list) is apparently named after a slang for amphetamine pills, and it is about the difficulty of breaking a drug addiction due to weak willpower. Philip K. Dick struggled with amphetamine addiction for many years, and in A Scanner Darkly, he describes himself as a casualty of drug addiction. Although he was a Functional Addict for many years, he ceased being able to write between 1970 and 1972, and his drug use resulted in the breakup of his fourth marriage. Although he eventually did manage to break his addictions, it is likely that his longtime drug abuse contributed to the stroke that eventually killed him.
- Last Note Nightmare: "White Kross" is an example for the whole album, being one of the darkest songs on the album.
- New Sound Album: More accessible songwriting is employed here than previous releases.
- Ode to Intoxication: "Cotton Crown" (or "Kotton Krown"), in direct contrast to "White Kross", is a mixture of this and Silly Love Songs; it is evidently named after the rush one gets from heroin and, in addition to the lyrics about Moore and Gordon's love (at the time) for each other, it describes a chemically induced feeling of euphoria and forgiveness. On the other hand, it could possibly also be Zig-Zagged due to the lines about being "wasted in time" and "never ready", and also by it being immediately followed by "White Kross", which describes the downsides of drug addiction.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: The final lyrics of "Pipeline/Kill Time" are an almost-whispered "We. Should. Kill. Time." Given how often it's repeated, it could also qualify as Broken Record and Madness Mantra.
- Sanity Slippage Song: "Schizophrenia" is about Exactly What It Says on the Tin. It is partially inspired by the life and writings of Philip K. Dick, whose own twin sister died when they were very young due to an allergy to their mother's milk. However, Kim Gordon's older brother, Keller, whom she "
[grew] up in awe of
", eventually developed a case of paranoid schizophrenia that required him to live under supervised care, which inspired a lot of Reality Subtext of the song: "This person who you lived with for so long is suddenly someone else," Gordon said. - Silly Love Songs: "Beauty Lies in the Eye" and "Kotton Krown". The latter evidently doubles as an Ode to Intoxication.
- Surprisingly Gentle Song: Also "Beauty Lies in the Eye" and "Kotton Krown" - both are extremely dreamlike and border on being Ur-Examples of shoegaze.
- Viewers Are Geniuses: Those not familiar with Philip K. Dick will think this album just has very weird Word Salad Lyrics.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: "Tuff Gnarl", "Kotton Krown", and "White Kross", although the latter two are sometimes spelled normally ("Cotton Crown" and "White Cross"). Per Wikipedia, the spellings with K's appear on "the CD/LP label on the original Blast First release and LP label on the original SST release", and the spellings with C's appear on "the CD label on the original SST release, the subsequent reissues, and in the booklets in all releases".
- Yandere: "Pacific Coast Highway" is an almost textbook example:
- Though it should be noted the song is (probably intentionally) written in such a way as to be textually ambiguous - "I want to take your breath away" could mean she just wants mind-blowing sex with the addressee of the song, or it could be a threat to literally suffocate them. Similarly, "You make me feel so crazy" could be a figurative statement of how infatuated she is, or it could be meant literally. Most of the lines in the song can be interpreted in two different ways — but we should note Gordon is desperately screaming them over one of the most ominous backing tracks on Sister.
