EVOL  by Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth's EVOL, released in May 1986, is essentially the moment the band decided to leave the raw No Wave scene for something slightly more "palatable," without, of course, sacrificing the noise that made them famous. It was their first work on the historic SST Records and the first featuring Steve Shelley on drums, who brought a sense of order to their chaos. Recorded in just one month at BC Studio in Brooklyn, and despite remaining underground, critics hailed it as the turning point toward alternative rock. EVOL was Sonic Youth's third studio release.

The cover, a photograph of Lung Leg from Richard Kern’s film Submit to Me, exudes exactly that "sick" and dark allure that characterizes the album. Kim Gordon has described it as the band's "goth album," a description that perfectly fits the hypnotic and ominous atmosphere of tracks like "Shadow of a Doubt." On the back cover, however, the tracklist is scrambled, perhaps to remind us that logic isn't exactly their forte.

The true highlight, though, is hidden at the end of Side B with "Expressway to Yr. Skull," which in the original vinyl version ended in a locked groove. This meant the final notes repeated infinitely, forcing you to get off the couch unless you wanted to hear the same sound until morning. It is this small, annoying, yet brilliant detail that makes EVOL stand out from the typical rock albums of the era.