Album Review: Lee Ranaldo and The Dust- Last Night on Earth

I wonder how Lee Ranaldo introduces himself if he’s out spitting mad game at all the shawtys. Because he could do one of two things—

The first is saying, “Hey girl. I used to be in Sonic Youth.”

The second is saying, “Hey girl. I make cool dad rock.”

(derp.)

In the wake of Sonic Youth’s unexpected demise thanks to the infidelity of co-frontman Thurston Moore, everyone in the band has pretty much made poor choices. Moore started a new band called Chelsea Light Moving. And they are terrible. His ex-wife, Kim Gordon, started an experimental guitar duo called Body/Head. They are also terrible.

And now here comes guitarist/vocalist Lee Ranaldo’s second project in a post-SY world. The first was a rather tepid dad rock outing from last year. Ranaldo apparently cannot be stopped, because he’s back with a “band”—The Dust, and a new LP, Last Night on Earth.

To be fair, Last Night isn't the WORST kind of cool dad rock out there—in most cases, it’s just slightly more tolerable than listening to the last six or seven years of Wilco’s output. But it’s certainly not memorable; just about every song wanders into incredibly self-indulgent territories, so it becomes all too easy to check out, only to come to a few minutes later and be like, “Oh this album is still on? What song is this? Oh this is the same song from before.” I hate to write something off so quickly as background music, but Last Night is unfortunately tepid, and there are few characteristics of it that grab a hold of you—or even gently tap you on the shoulder.

Ranaldo and The Dust do occasionally recall some very Sonic Youth-esq moments at times, although it’s always SY’s more restrained characteristics—latter day, Rather Ripped-era guitar sounds—but they are very welcome, none the less. Overall, the band channels a little bit of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, but obviously much less theatrical and aggressive.

For a majority of Sonic Youth’s canon, Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon traded off lead vocal duties, with Lee Ranaldo popping up on the microphone every once in a while. While it was never obvious then, on Last Night on Earth, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that his singing voice sounds very similar to Steven Page, former member of the Barenaked Ladies. It’s a fact that I tried not to let distract me, but I kept waiting for him to break into “If I Had a Million Dollars.”

There are times when you think certain songs are really going to take off and go somewhere interesting. “Key-Hole,” the album’s second track, has some moments where it appears on the cusp of something better, but it can never quite overcome the MOR doldrums Ranaldo and The Dust have created. There are also times when I found myself rooting for a song—like REALLY trying hard to like it. “Home CHDS,” starts strong, but then takes an ill-fated turn less than halfway in.

Lee Ranaldo is roughly the same age as my parents, so maybe he isn't making music for someone who is 30, and maybe that’s why listening to this became a form of torture. Perhaps if I were a cool dad, and possibly five to seven years older, I would hear something in this that I am not hearing now. 

If you are a cool dad and want to be bored to tears, Last Night on Earth is out now, via Matador.