The Whitey Album
| The Whitey Album | ||||
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| Studio album by Ciccone Youth | ||||
| Released | January 18, 1989 | |||
| Recorded | 1986–1988 | |||
| Length | 53:56 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | Sonic Youth | |||
| Sonic Youth chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Whitey Album | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Mojo | |
| Pitchfork | 7.8/10 |
| Uncut | |
| The Village Voice | C |
The Whitey Album is an album by Ciccone Youth, a pseudonymous side project of Sonic Youth members Steve Shelley, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore, featuring contributions from Minutemen/Firehose member Mike Watt and J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.
The album is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Madonna and 1980s pop in general. Beatbox and samplers/sequencers are the foundation of the recording, but Sonic Youth's trademark dissonance and experimentalism still manage to permeate throughout. The album featured a new version of an early Sonic Youth number, "Making the Nature Scene".
Mike Watt's only contribution is a version of Madonna's "Burnin' Up," on which he sang and played all instruments.
According to the liner notes of the deluxe edition of Daydream Nation: "The album cover [of Ciccone Youth], a b&w xerox enlargement of Madonna's face, was a brilliant and contemporary design. Sonic Youth had utilized found images in album covers before, but this was testing the limit. We sent copies of the vinyl album to Warners to be passed on to Madonna via her sister who worked in the art department there. Word came back that she had no problem with it acknowledging she remembered the band from her NYC Danceteria days".
The album received generally mixed reviews from critics. Trouser Press wrote "the joke doesn't translate, and the disc comes across as a self-indulgent mess".
All songs by Ciccone Youth, except where noted.
CD reissue bonus track
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