Daydream Nation was the peak and never bettered

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Sonic Youth's DN was an amazing album that showed them at their greatest. It mixed accessibility and innovation with rock'n'roll

What do other SY fans think?

― Sonicred, Sunday, 4 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

As much as I love DN, I'd say that Sister is better. Certainly it's more accesible.

― James Annett, Sunday, 4 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

sister is better, and so is the NYC avant gardy one, on a dfft tip, obv. DDN is lamely produced, and the sound has no body.

― mark s, Sunday, 4 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Already discussed here.

Since that thread, I have listened to DN high and can understand why people think it's great. It's certainly not their best 80s album though (and I've stopped smoking up).

Evol is the greatest piece of art ever created.

― sundar subramanian, Sunday, 4 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Daydream Nation" gets my vote as their best.

― Sean, Sunday, 4 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

EVOL gets my eager second.

― 1 1 2 3 5, Sunday, 4 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

DN is the only SY album I have and I adore it completely. I've (perhaps idiotically) avoided exploring their other albums because I fear they lack DN's enveloping guitar sprawl abyss that prods all the right places on my brain. A masterwork, no doubt. What's all this 'sound has no body' business about? To these ears, DN has more 'body' than a (insert unfunny analogy here.)

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

daydream nation sucks shit - it's even worse than "dirty" - there's just no punk rock spirit in this album and the free noise bits do not suck me in at all. more than anything DN reminds me of "Hemispheres" by RUSH and that is no fkn compliment. yeah - i'll admit that "teenage riot" and "kissability" and "providence" are absolutely amazing - but the rest of it STINKS.

― bob snoom, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

maybe my speakers are just crap, mitch: they are older than you, after all!!

but hemispheres, eh? i am changing my mind abt it?

― mark s, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Daydream Nation is too much of a rocker. Teenage Riot sums up the scene at the time (J. Mascis, that is) but even Dinosaur (I have never recognized the 'Jr.') was past its prime when D.N. came out. D.N. to me seems like the bridge between the hardcore scene (Black Flag, Husker Du, Minutemen) and the alternative scene (Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana - before they were called 'grunge'.) Oh, how the skate kids loved it...

But Sister is the definitive Sonic Youth LP.

― Dave225, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yeah - sister is STILL amazing. ciccone youth lp also v. underrated. DDN sounds nothing like dino jr / husker dú etc to me though - it sounds like a bad live skull album or something. (and when i said "hemispheres" i meant "hemispheres" if it didn't have "the trees" on it)

― bob snoom, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Silver Sessions. Followed closely by the Suburbia soundtrack. Followed closely by Sister. sinker -- are you talking about NYC ghosts and flowers? That one ate me.

― Sterling Clover, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I like Dirty and Evol best. The production and length seem to take away all of the impact from DN, and yet the production and length are about all that I find notable about DN. I really don't hear much rock and roll on DN, I think it's their most generically 80's indie rock album. Hemispheres is easily my 4th favorite Rush album, by the way.

― Kris, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

DN has "Hyperstation" = it is glorious and deserving of worship.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, DN is best. Lee Renaldo is actually not boring when he sings. The guitars are amazing, dizzying and new and the production is what makes it fantastic, so I don't know what the guy was talking about with the "flat production". Just listening to the track with mellow guitar and "sweet desire sweet desire we will fall" followed by one of the coolest melodic blasts ever played is enough to put it head and shoulders above the rest. EVOL is a great album but strikes me as more of a dramatic college kid's record and Sister used to entertain me but now I just find it half-assed with stupid lyrics. It very much echoes the attitude of their lame Master Dik ep and Ciccone Youth nonsense. I think there was a carefree period where they were taking too many drugs to bother thinking things through and just played from the gut. Sure, that's how rock is supposed to be. Don't bore me with this speech. If you spend time writing songs and playing them over and over and humming 'em in your spare time, quite often the song goes through a few alterations and comes out sounding much better than if you go to the studio with some bare bones song that your just going to rip through.

― Nude Spock, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i want to like it but it never comes to get me — but hey, like i say, my speakers are older than some posters, so it may be that

― mark s, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's kinda sad how all these cutting-edge 80s musicians that you thought were going to break it huge and finally get the Hendrix/Doors kind of recognition for being truly innovative rock bands just ended up old, washed-up has-beens few people even respect anymore. I used to wait for the day when people would finally hear and understand Sonic Youth and come up to me and say, "Spock, you are our new hero. You liked this first, therefore you are cooler than us. Will you befriend us and teach us?" But, alas, that day never came. They showed up like dips on the MTV, impressing nobody with the snotty artrock looks. Well, okay, they got a few more fans somehow. All my friends were repelled by their videos and didn't understand why I liked them. I just kept saying cliches like "they were better before they existed" and "the new stuff's too commercial or something, they used to be unique"... but, in reality, "Dirty" and "Washing Machine" were unique albums. "Goo" was unique, too. They got more rockin' somehow, but they retained the uniqueness. I guess they just matured and evolved into something I didn't like as much. Shit, now I'm kinda old. I wonder when the revival will start? When I'm around 40?

― Nude Spock, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I dig Goo more than any of 'em. (Although I still think Sister is the definitive.)

― Dave225, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Titanium Expose used to give me a boner. One of the first cover songs I bothered to figure out on the guitar.

― Nude Spock, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

In early 1991, a couple of jokers conned KROQ in LA into playing "Mildred Pierce" during an evening slot. That was amusing.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

actually my favourite might actually be that "masterdik" 12" previously dissed above. i think i like it for the reasons it was dissed for (i really did type "dissed" twice there >shame< & does that make it 3?)

― bob snoom, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

EVOL is a great album but strikes me as more of a dramatic college kid's record

You just don't understand.

(P.S. Sister probably has the best lyrics of any of their albums.)

― sundar, who wrote 25 pages on Evol and Gender Construction for his 4th ye, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I listened to the album again yesterday, but on discman, not hi-fi (where you can fuxor with the settings so a dylan spoken-word piece sounds like godspeed! or something), and i got some idea of why mark s thinks the album's sound lacks 'body'. Still, it didn't come off as sonically undernourished or too tinny or trebly (btw, "body"= sufficient bass?), but rather a kind of mercurial surface animation, punctuated by bits of 'body'. Two particularly 'immense' moments: the boulders of distortion being dragged across 'providence' and the metallic guitar stabs that end the album. I imagine even speakers that reached drinking age before I did would register those moments with some kind of substance. Anudder SY thing: the way they closely run anthemic fist-pumping rock (see -fr'instance- 3:15 into "rain king" or 6 seconds into "kissability" and tell me that in another context those wouldn't satisfy a stadium of stadium-rock fans) and the v. much insular world of noize and distortion, summoning screaming riotous crowds that can exist only in the mind of the listener? (and especially not in dave q's russia.) I imagine this is a characteristic shared with 'japanoise' and the like, though i haven't heard enough of it to compare the two.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No one's mentioned "A Thousand Leaves" so I will. Exceptionally underrated. "Goodbye 20th Century" was an interesting flipside to George Michael's similar endeavours.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mitch: I think "Wish Fulfilment" from Dirty is the best example of what you're talking about.

ATL is just such a problematic record for me. I just don't know what to say. I love it and I hate it at the same time for the same reasons. I don't play it a lot. When I saw them play it live it really was enchanting, more so in fact than the oldies/NYCG&F show. I mean, it has some of the most abjectly inexcusable lyrics ever on it. And should Thurston Moore even be allowed to sing some of those ballads? And "Sunday?" And that interminable middle bit in "Hits of Sunshine?" And yet it does have this all-encompassing fairy-tale sprawl to it. If you're ready for it you can even buy into all the hippie nonsense. And they really do push guitar sound. And some of that stuff is pretty impressively put together - "Karen Koltrane" especially, the drawl and jangle leading into those shrill shards of distortion and that lovely coda. And "Hoarfrost" is pretty. Real pretty. And "Heather Angel" is such a brilliant demented flip-out, a legitimate late-90s successor to postpunk/no wave. I think I'm going to put it on again.

― sundar subramanian, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

am i the only nyc g&f supporter around here? that massif wall of feedback which builds a head of steam in the title track is just great. it's a really great record. anyway, i relistened to sister for the first time in about two years tonite, and sundar's right, it does have the best lyrics of any of their records. ("i can't get laid/cause everyone is dead" = best rock lyric ever in my mind.) sy records have always lacked "body" to these ears, but then again, they're not the swans. i expect treble from sy, so lack of "body" doesn't bodder me.

― jess, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eesh.

― Nude Spock, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nah, I'm w/ you Jess on NYCG+F being a 'good' alb (but as I said elsewhere, I'm not exactly a discriminating SY fan.) The title track in particular is classic - even better when they do it live - although some of the other 'beat ' poetry on that alb is maybe a little hard to take. The SY alb I like least is 'Washing Machine'; I also think 'Psychic Hearts' by T. Moore is v. underrated.

― Andrew L, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

NYCG&F is Sonic Youth's version of DeLillo's Underworld. Or maybe of Ginsberg's late-period folk songs. DN has, I think, the most powerful lyrics (as opposed to the "best" -- since that's Sister, but they're straight fuck-off rock). The Spawl and Trilogy in particular. I see what people are saying about DN tho. That it rocks, clearly, but not viscerally so, not in the way Sister or Evol did, and not in the other way that Dirty would. Or even Goo. Much mroe a texture & tone poem than any proper "album" -- and Teenage Riot, in particular, invariably lacks the punch which I always expect from it.

The definative SY album, however, is obviously Experimental Jet Set Trash which marries art-damage, rock, and pop sensibility in an album that feels twice as long as it is.

― Sterling Clover, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"obviously" ?????

― bob snoom, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The definative SY album, however, is obviously Experimental Jet Set Trash

Not in my universe, not with that bullshit "Bull in the Heather" song on there, my least favorite Kim Gordon moment of all fucking time. GAH! The world's worst chorus, the world's stupidest video!

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That song has an immortal hook.

― Sterling Clover, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Let's face it, Daydream Nation might be the only thing they ever did that was good.

― Nude Spock, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You got that straight. SY is one band that is often described with the words "annoying" (see above) and "pretentious". DN is one that manages to be less preposterous than the others. It's "mercurial production" gives it the artificial environment that makes it interesting and ghostlike. Oh wait a minute, I'm just Nude Spock again, so I guess my opinion doesn't really count more than once, if that.

― Drew Peabottum, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I agree that Jet Set feels twice as long as it is. The "party, party, party, party all the time" bit is even worse than "Bull In the Heather." "Go up to her and say/'I love you' anyway" was kind of a charming couplet though.

I put on ATL last night. It had moments but at some point during "French Tickler" I thought "this is shit" and didn't make it to the 2nd record. Washing Machine, on the other hand, is lovely, with maybe a couple of weak tracks. I listened to it this morning. It was my favourite album for years. All hazy blue-greens and wispy tunes and aching sighs. "The Diamond Sea" is one of the best things the band has ever done.

I called for Brent Dicrescenzo's death when he trashed NYCG&F but I can't listen to the album anymore. "Small Flowers Crack Concrete" ruins decent music with the clumsiest possible 'poetic' articulation of an asinine self-absorbed sentiment (worst moment: "Plastic saxophones bleat, bleed for nothing, nada"). "Renegade Princess" is likewise appalling lyrically and the riff sounds a little half-assed too. Some of the other tracks seem a little sterile musically. Sometimes it even just sounds like some post-rock record with better guitarists. The title track is nice, though the guitar melody impresses me more than the sub-Branca drone. The interlocking guitar lines in the first song are pretty too.

Basically, any SY guitar-rock album has at least something to recommend it musically if you take it on its own terms. They are all different. The band does something original with guitars every time and usually does a good job of using their old tricks. They haven't really pushed the avant-garde potential of the guitar in a huge way since Evol but this doesn't apply more to Washing Machine than it does to Sister. (Dirty and Washing Machine are probably more accomplished in terms of guitar playing if anything). It's usually a difference in the lyrics and singing that make some of the albums brilliant and some abject for a given listener (and it's usually different albums that fall into the two categories for different listeners). And, frankly, the lyrics get childish on every record. Some varieties of childishness just connect better than others.

― sundar subramanian, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

DN is I think the only one I'd actually use the word "pretentious" for: cuz these ppl who are good at all this, er, other stuff [waves hand vaguely: sundarll fill you in] assume that they can therefore pull off a fan-fucking-tastic straight alt.rock pop double LP. But they can't. Not just like that. That's not what they're good at.

Plus of course the production is flat.

― mark s, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i realized today that sy aren't even a "favorite band" in the sense that i pull the albums out frequently, but somehow i still own ALL of the studio albums (including the syr releases.) how odd.

so, i decided today - inspired by this thread - to listen to them all in chronological order. (it made for a rousing start to the morning, lemme tell ya.) i'm currently in the middle of washing machine (there were breaks, obv.) and more than ever the notion that they have made this complete 360 back to their "roots" seems more tenuous than ever. to these (admittedly glazed ears at this point) "washing machine" doesn't sound especially different than "sister," except in the fact they're different songs, with slightly fuller/glossier production, by a band 8+ odd yrs. on...the supposed "sideways swerve" into pop/grunge in the early 90s seems to fit fairly comfortably in their progression as a band now...not the "anomalies" they once seemed.

secondly, it dawned on me how much of a (great) gateway band sy are; part of the reason i loved them as a teenager (and now, for completely different reasons, mind) is how well they synthesize the post-punk noize rock with classik rock and the avant influences. the first time i ever heard about the following were in sy articles/interviews: no wave, glenn branca, albert ayler, stockhausen, phill niblock, xenakis, metal machine music and la monte young. and they were the first time i really went back and listened to: neil young, hendrix, black sabbath...hell, even cheap trick. and whether or not all those artists have remained part of my steady diet, sy was responsible for a large part of my musical growth/expansion.

― a man with too much time on his hands, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i apologize for all the grammatikal errors and circular logic in the last post. the NOIZE has eaten my BRANE.

― jess, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well, you're all crazy. They pulled off a double LP no prob. Not a bad song. And, nowhere near as pretentious as any other album they ever made! Cross The Breeze is about as close to Bull In The Heather you'll hear, but that's a fuckin' cool acid song ("I'm Satan's daughter"!... ah, reminiscent of "Protect Me, You" or whatever it was called, where Kim calls out the demons on Confusion Is Sex). You guys know I'm messin' with ya, right? I don't really care either way. I hold DN, Goo, Evol and Sister in relatively high regard and fairly equal. Confusion is Sex and Sonic Death are fantastic background noise. "Diamond Sea" is the only decent song they made after Goo. A Thousand Leaves and NYC Ghosts & Flowers suck. I think DN is a great album due to it's length, continuity, textures and the fact that there isn't a stinker on the entire album. I love the production, I really do. I think it's the best production they ever had on any album. Production notes: Dirty is too dry, Washing Machine is too much, Goo is too much as well, but glossier and more lost in reverb, Sister is lo-fi, let's face it, Evol is nothing spectacular and the rest are crap for production.

― Nude Spock, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

spock - v concrete assertions there. nice to be so certain. "diamond sea" a good song????????/ fucking top ten in suckiest things they ever did in my book. and daydream nation is still shit forever no matter what anyone says they are 100% wrong & should be damned to hell. (kissability fkn rocks, tho).

― bob snoom, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one year passes...

I just pulled this out of its cover to listen to it for the first time. I think I'm liking it.

― Cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 24 April 2003 17:31 (twenty-two years ago)

when we did that 'albums we'll have listened to most by the time we die' thread (or whatever it was called) I listed sign o the times but I wouldn't be surprised if this is my most listened to rock album

― James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 24 April 2003 17:40 (twenty-two years ago)

i still never really put this on

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 24 April 2003 17:49 (twenty-two years ago)

you three years too young to need to

― James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 24 April 2003 17:53 (twenty-two years ago)

what is the point of a teenage riot if it gets you OUT of bed??!!

― jones (actual), Thursday, 24 April 2003 17:59 (twenty-two years ago)

haha I sold this last week!

(I'll only get it on 2LP now (and only if its cheap), these 70+ rock recs are mostly better on 2LP, apart from fushitsusha's dbl live, of course)

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 24 April 2003 18:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I love it. I usually shrink from using words like "masterpiece," but DDN, all epic and sprawling, really invites it. But I haven't heard Sister, which a lot of people seem to like. (I will agree, though, that they haven't equalled it since.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 24 April 2003 18:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I agree with Julio. I'd probably enjoy having this thing a lot more if I had a double LP rather than a bloated, repetitive single CD. Side 1 would easily be the best (side 4 second best).

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 24 April 2003 18:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I may be the only one in the world who liked Experimental Jet Set blah blah blah.

When I got DN, I almost didn't like it at first, because it didn't live up the hype immediately. It was also really different from the other stuff I'd heard from them (most notably it wasn't nearly as angry).

I agree with Jess that they're a great gateway band. They were for me.

― David Allen, Thursday, 24 April 2003 18:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Daydream Nation is probably my 3rd fave after Evol and Sister.

― Nick A. (Nick A.), Thursday, 24 April 2003 18:55 (twenty-two years ago)

my fave is dirty. they were so fucking awesome at the lorelei in 1992. playing mostly songs i had never heard of. one of my fave live bands. new order was also at the lorelei. and they were so shite...

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Thursday, 24 April 2003 19:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I may be the only one in the world who liked Experimental Jet Set blah blah blah.

I may be the only one who doesn't hear Sister or EVOL as being any better than (my fave) Bad Moon Rising.

― Aaron A., Thursday, 24 April 2003 19:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, God, I hate Dirty. What an overproduced pice of shit attempt at a sell out--generic song structures, awful vocals from Kim throughout, unmemorable songs. It's only worthwhile points are "Sugar Kane" and "Wish Fulfillment."

Daydream Nation is very good (especially "Hey Joni" "Trilogy" and "Teenage Riot"), but I probably don't listen to it as much as I do to Washing Machine or Bad Moon Rising. As far as NYCG&F goes, it's pretty good except for the mostly terribly lyrics--sundar was OTM above, about that.

― Ian Johnson, Thursday, 24 April 2003 19:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Dirty a lot, but my opinion may be tainted by teenage nostalgia. I also like Confusion is Sex/Kill Yr Idols a lot. The rest, I'm mostly ambivalent on.

― Nick A. (Nick A.), Thursday, 24 April 2003 19:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Dirty sucks but Ian's not OTM because he left out "Theresa's Sound World" which is a much better song than "Sugar Kane."

― hstencil, Thursday, 24 April 2003 19:26 (twenty-two years ago)

'dirty' has just been reissued with an extra CD. anyone heard this?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 24 April 2003 19:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I may be the only one in the world who liked Experimental Jet Set blah blah blah.

Nope. I dig it, too. Of course, it was also the first SY album I ever heard, after "Bull in the Heather" inexplicably got alt-rock airplay. It's also a very sexy album.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 24 April 2003 19:30 (twenty-two years ago)

About as sexy as a genital wart, if you ask me (and you didn't).

― hstencil, Thursday, 24 April 2003 19:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh come on. Well, it worked for me at least ;)

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 24 April 2003 19:39 (twenty-two years ago)

"Daydream Nation" is actually the only Sonic Youth album I have listened to. If that was their peak, then the rest must have been really awful.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 24 April 2003 20:12 (twenty-two years ago)

enveloping guitar sprawl abyss

That's what it's all about for me.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 24 April 2003 20:23 (twenty-two years ago)

is hey joni about joni mitchell? in that case i have to relisten to it.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Thursday, 24 April 2003 20:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to care so much.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, 24 April 2003 23:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't believe I said that I'd stopped smoking up though.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, 24 April 2003 23:48 (twenty-two years ago)

What makes Washing Machine such a special SY album is that the songs inevitably start as as lazy indy tunes and then turn into probably some of their best guitar freak outs. Their best 90s release no doubt
But overall, I'll still give 1st marks to Bad Moon Rising (for the vibe, the feeling of time and place, more than the songs themselves) and Murray St. (where IMO is Daydream Nation pr. II but better)

― Fabrice (Fabfunk), Friday, 25 April 2003 07:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Daydream Nation is the most overrated SY album ever. Sprawling, over-long stoner rock. Boring with a capital BLAH where Sonic Youth should be blistering and intense. I'd MUCH rather have Sister or Evol. Or even Goo, come to think of it.

― kate, Friday, 25 April 2003 08:09 (twenty-two years ago)

what i like abt SY is that every single one of their rkds = someone's idea of their peak

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 25 April 2003 08:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Confusion Is Sex = the pinnacle of all sentient achievement in the '80s. After that it's a bit meh. (And not just for SY)

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 25 April 2003 09:18 (twenty-two years ago)

kate is otm like so often. i haven't listened to dn very often (there are reasons for this) but this bloody "teenage riot" alone turns me off so much. the songs are way too long. that's what i love about "dirty" the songs are short and there are many of them. it somehow has this punk feeling like hardly any other sy album except "confusion is sex" maybe.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Friday, 25 April 2003 09:33 (twenty-two years ago)

''what i like abt SY is that every single one of their rkds = someone's idea of their peak''

brilliant! its something that has been there throughout this thread but you made me see it.

I wonder if the Beatles is the only other band where this would also apply.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 25 April 2003 10:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, Magical Mystery Tour totally blows the rest of their shit away.

― Nick A. (Nick A.), Friday, 25 April 2003 10:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I need to get Goo again. I haven't heard it in years. IIRC, it was bubblegum pop choons played free dischordance and the intensity of dronerock. Which is exactly what I want to be achieving with the EBA, so I earnestly believe that I should give it another listen. Soon. Quite possibly as soon as I get paid.

― kate, Friday, 25 April 2003 10:42 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah nick you're right ;-)

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 25 April 2003 10:44 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

God, read the first half of this thread and be glad ILX is where it is today. Dunces!

― HAMBURGER NEURON GROUP (ex machina), Thursday, 10 June 2004 16:23 (twenty-one years ago)

How could Daydream Nation be Sonic Youth's peak when Sister (which came before it) and Washing Machine (which came after it) are both better albums?

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Thursday, 10 June 2004 16:55 (twenty-one years ago)

nineteen years pass...

man, i have a 2014 vinyl reissue in the store and i put it on today and does that ever sound horrible. oof. you can't turn it up it just breaks apart. sounds like the sound came from an old download on youtube. really bad. i almost want to pull it from the store. i have $30 bucks on it. just a terrible pressing by someone. people like this pressing on Discogs! i swear my ears can hear properly. despite the constant ringing.

― scott seward, Monday, 27 May 2024 17:28 (one year ago)

I got a blast first og cd issue last year and it really sounds better to me than the 90s dgc I grew up with, you can turn it way up and it sounds great

― brimstead, Monday, 27 May 2024 17:38 (one year ago)

the original blast first vinyl sounded really cool.

― scott seward, Monday, 27 May 2024 17:43 (one year ago)

Sonic Nurse was their peak and never bettered.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 27 May 2024 17:57 (one year ago)

Maybe the 2014 vinyl has a nicely printed and folded spine which can be clearly read across the living room

― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 27 May 2024 19:29 (one year ago)

I’m not sure if it was the case elsewhere but the Blast First CDs were still the go to version in stores here up until at least the late 90s; never saw the DGC reissues before 2000

― Master of Treacle, Monday, 27 May 2024 19:48 (one year ago)

I FINALLY replaced my Enigma 2LP, which I sold in the classic early-90's "I'll just trade this in for the CD" mistake

― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Monday, 27 May 2024 19:50 (one year ago)

probably this DGC edition
https://www.discogs.com/release/1894529-Sonic-Youth-Daydream-Nation

― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Monday, 27 May 2024 19:51 (one year ago)

ironic time for this thread to have been made, right before they bettered it twice

― ciderpress, Monday, 27 May 2024 19:55 (one year ago)

wait u think Jet Set is better? that is insane, but I respect the take.

― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Monday, 27 May 2024 19:57 (one year ago)

oh wait, no, it was Goo and Dirty - that is a legit argument

― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Monday, 27 May 2024 19:57 (one year ago)

god I can't read, just ignore me lol

― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Monday, 27 May 2024 19:58 (one year ago)

the dgc vinyl edition sounds fine to me

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Monday, 27 May 2024 20:37 (one year ago)

Discogs notes that it is the same master as the 2007 reissue, fwiw

― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Monday, 27 May 2024 20:50 (one year ago)

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