On this rather splendid release, those venerated rock alchemists Sonic Youth turn their vision inwards with a colourful sketchbook full of introspective intensity.

Rather Ripped is poetic and elegiac, but never suffocating. There's a generous warmth and humanity in these abstract sermons on love and longing, delivered with the customary Sonic Youth gauzy grittiness.

Kim Gordon is in fine purring voice, whether on the needful You keep me coming home again' on Reena or the sheer breathless swoon of 'I like the way you move' on Jams Run Free.

This is quietly, yet stridently, one of the releases of the year.