Album Review: Lee Ranaldo Between

Sonic Youth's other guitarist has dabbled a lot before with his own solo projects, but this is the first album that is a solid collection of songs, which steers away from the more predictable experimentation and noise that he has often worked on in solo mode previously. And the tracks are real songs, the likes of which are often tucked away on the Sonic Youth albums, usually waiting until you've played the record a few times before they reach out and bite you.

Ranaldo's sense of melody and songwriting is in check, and while a lot of the songs kind of pass by on the first listens, there's a lot more immediately catchy moments than one might expect. There's also a beautiful naivety in most of the record, which is a testament to Ranaldo's in-check ego. And the fact that he's wanted to record a bunch of songs with country and folk leanings, while keeping his experimental psych edge sharp, is remarkable. Shouts is a case study in all of these elements – guitars with a Nashville slide lean all over the track, which builds into a cacophony of spoken samples and washed out effects for a middle section before petering out into simplicity at the end. The same can be said of Stranded - while he plays it a bit straighter like an Alex Chilton ballad, it still freaks out enough to remind you who's in control. Tomorrow Never Comes finishes the album with sonic references to Tomorrow Never Knows, and it's a good reference point for the whole record.

With Sonic Youth's future inding up, Ranaldo's solo career could bloom from here.