Eternal |iˈtÉ™rnl| adjective lasting or existing forever; without end or beginning ”¢ (of truths, values, or questions) valid for all time; essentially unchanging : eternal truths of art and life. If you are looking for an insight in to Sonic Youth’s 16th Studio album, and first for new label Matador, you could do worse than use this dictionary definition as your guide. The gap between Sonic Youth’s last album Rather Ripped and The Eternal is the longest gap between a Sonic Youth studio record. In between time the band released Hits are for Squares on Starbucks Music. A ‘greatest hits’ of a kind, it saw celebrity fans choosing their favourite SY tracks. The hype surrounding The Eternal would have it that the album marks a new beginning for Sonic Youth having parted company with ‘major label tyranny’- an opportunity to break free from the past, enrole a new member in the shape of Free Kitten/ Pavement’s Mark Ibold and move in a dynamic new direction- ever the bold innovators. In reality however, The Eternal seems more like Hits are for Squares: The New Batch. The same formulas, themes, tunings and guitar squall play out as they always have done. A palm mute here, studied dissonance there, name dropping other artists (of all makes and models) elsewhere.The lyrics to album opener 'Sacred Trickster' seem to play with this formulaic idea, as Gordon sings “Press up against the amp /Turn up the treble, don't forget”. Elsewhere we get the taught riff opening/ noise crescendo/ meandering pretty chiming outro on 'Anti- Orgasm' and 'Calming The Snake'. In fairness to Sonic Youth, when they first began to use this trick it seemed shocking and visceral, but, almost thirty years on, their continued reliance on dissonant passages where others would use a bridge or a chorus has become predictable. What was one confrontational is now established. 'Antenna' provides the languid, chiming Thurston song, a rehashing of an idea that is realised better on A Thousand Leaves’ 'Sunday' and Murray Street’s 'Rain On Tin'. There is a fair share of guitar violence on display here on 'Poison Arrow' and 'Malibu Gas Station', which features some trademark chugging and a typically bored and breathy Gordon vocal. 'Thunderclap' brings some unconvinving Wooh Wooh’s and Yeah Yeahs’s, while Steve Shelley whips up a storm on the melodic 'No Way' which could easily have been taken from Goo or Dirty. Moore and co seem to run through the songs here with energy, yet at no point does the record ever feel vital or dangerous.Sonic Youth’s 16th is enjoyable enough, and is probably their most commercial and immediately accessible record for some time, but as such it never really challenges the listener as previous releases have. Ultimately it marks the first truly backward looking Sonic Youth album, presenting more a greatest hits package of ideas than anything truly original. 72%Sonic Youth on Myspace