The Whitey Album

Content

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.

Artwork

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".

Reception

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".

Track listing

All songs by Ciccone Youth, except as noted.

1. "Needle-Gun" – 2:27
2. (Silence) – 1:03
3. "G-Force" – 3:39
4. "Platoon II" – 4:18
5. "MacBeth" – 5:27
6. "Me & Jill/Hendrix Cosby" – 5:30
7. "Burnin' Up (Mike Watt Original Demo)" (Madonna) – 3:52
8. "Hi! Everybody!" – 0:57
9. "Children of Satan/Third Fig" – 3:06
10. "Two Cool Rock Chicks Listening to Neu" – 2:56
11. "Addicted to Love" (Robert Palmer) – 3:45
12. "Moby-Dik" – 1:01
13. "March of the Ciccone Robots" – 1:57
14. "Making the Nature Scene" – 3:14
15. "Tuff Titty Rap" – 0:39
16. "Into the Groove(y)" (Madonna, Bray) – 4:36

17. "MacBeth (Alternate Mix)" – 5:17