'Hold That Tiger’s sterling reputation among the Sonic Youth faithful is well deserved. In fact, it isn’t a stretch to suggest that the album is to the first handful of SY releases what 'It’s Alive' is to the first three Ramones LPs - a feral and liberatory public snapshot of a band’s blossoming imperial phase. Indeed, HTT is the sound of a group at the peak of their powers, presenting new songs alongside a handful of older ones with the kind of wild, cathartic enthusiasm common to rock ’n’ roll’s most revered live albums.
Taking nothing away from 'Sister' - inarguably one of indie rock’s first true masterpieces - it is reasonable that many fans prefer the live versions heard on 'Hold That Tiger' to their studio counterparts. On HTT, Sonic Youth is a spiky, pummeling and confident force, alternately mammoth and meditative. Sister and its predecessor 'EVOL' notably added an airy, dreamlike reverie to the band’s turbulent doom-lurch, a stylistic evolution that seems to crystallize on HTT. Throughout, Kim Gordon’s sinewy, sumptuous bass and Steve Shelley’s propulsive, tom-heavy percussion provide the bedrock groove for Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo’s ferocious barrages of noise-guitar crunch.
By 1987, the band was confidently articulating their dual lexicon of punk-noir dissonance and supernal, psychedelic sonic calligraphy - bending their jagged, streetwise gnarl into balloon animals of dazzling and beautiful songs. This collision of splendor and chaos would become a hallmark of the group’s singular alchemy as well as provide a blueprint for the post-SST American underground they would help invent and ultimately nurture.
'Hold That Tiger’s encore - four songs by the band’s beloved Ramones, which Thurston would later astutely compare to “the perfect pudding after a hearty meal” - serves as a reminder that, like any true punks, Sonic Youth never could resist a good, rousing anthem to send the kids home with their ears ringing, their hearts hot-wired. This first-time reissue comes with gatefold jacket. Mastered by Bob Weston from the orginal tapes. Recorded by Aadam Jacobs. Audio repair/editing by Aaron Mullan.
TRACK LISTING
1. Intro
2. Schizophrenia
3. Tom Violence
4. White Kross
5. Kotton Krown
6. Stereo Sanctity
7. Brother James
8. Pipeline/Kill Time
9. (I Got A) Catholic Block
10. Tuff Gnarl
11. Death Valley ’69
12. Beauty Lies In The Eye
13. Expressway To Yr. Skull
14. Pacific Coast Highway
15. Loudmouth
16. I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You
17. Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World
18. Beat On The Brat