Best Closing Track on a Sonic Youth Album

Expressway, now and forever.

Titanium Expose, now and forever ever.

The Diamond Sea is really good, but no it's Expressway. Death Valley's a great track, but it feels kind of tacked on.

Expressway close second to Diamond Sea for me.

Trilogy 4EVA!!!

Unfortunately like all trilogies the last part sucks.

should there just be an "I Love Sonic Youth" board?
("Diamond Sea," btw)

Expressway vs. Diamond Sea.

I voted for the former.

Unfortunately like all trilogies the last part sucks.

Eliminator Jr sucks? That's crazy talk.

thanks to the dgc reissues i have no sense of "death valley," "expressway" or "white cross" as Closing Tracks.

Actually all those bonus tracks preceded DGC and were on the original Blast First and SST CD issues.

expressway, esp. since it never actually ends

Only Bad Moon's really work in the context of the respective albums too. I never listen "Bubblegum" or "Master-Dik".

I'd like to publicly apologize for kicking off SY poll mania, btw, my intention was to only do one at a time and I don't begrudge anyone else for doing others w/o my 'permission' or anything silly like that but obviously we are in a state of super overkill now

We're massaging the history.

for me it's "Or" vs. "Expressway," which is impossible.

not saying this isn't a good poll idea, btw, just poorly timed. how i'd rate 'em:

Titanium Expose > Sweet Shine > White Cross > Expressway To Yr. Skull > Trilogy > Death Valley '69 > Or > Sympathy for the Strawberry > The Diamond Sea > Peace Attack > Lee Is Free > Massage The History > Heather Angel > Creme Brulee > Lightnin

"Bubblegum" totally ruins the conclusion achieved by "Expressway"! I'll listen to "Expressway" and "Diamond Sea" back-to-back some time in the next couple days to decide this.

I think Death Valley 69 was the first Sonic Youth song I ever heard, so that's the one for me.

blood crystalized to sand . . .

thanks to the dgc reissues i have no sense of "death valley," "expressway" or "white cross" as Closing Tracks.

― da croupier, den 27 juli 2009 20:36 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

^^this. but i guess it would have to be diamond sea anyway

lock groove infinity

my LP says "Madonna, Sean & Me" fwiw

"The Crucifixion of Sean Penn" is another alternate title iirc.

I love a lot of these songs but it's definitely The Diamond Sea for me, too.

I have listened to "Titanium Expose" so many times trying to figure out why people love it and today I can't even remember what it sounds like. It is the black hole of Sonic Youth's discography and the love just FLABBERGASTS me.

the video of thurston & kim making out if pretty OMG though

"Titanium Expose" was the first Sonic Youth song I heard (thanks to the Pump Up The Volume sdtrk) but I voted for Death Valley '69 in this poll.

People love "Titanium Expose"??

Well anytime someone big-ups it I'm like "omg people acknowledge it exists?"

also i respectfully disagree with al on the "poor timing" of more SY polls. I'd rather gorge on this stuff until people burn out than parcel out everyone's opinions on different aspects of their ouvre week by week

Death Valley 69. It's the most focused and exciting track on this poll.

yeah i don't care if there are a bajillion sonic youth polls. they're fun! though i wouldn't vote for it over some of the others, I really like "Peace Attack" ... if it was 21st century last tracks that'd be my pick I think.

"Peace Attack" is tremendous. Sonic Nurse is still my favorite record of theirs from the past decade.

("Diamond Sea" totally won, although I'm only 9 min into it.)

Down in the Valley

Think I went for Bad Moon Rising in both polls, but she's in a bad mood or 100% too obv

and yeah diamond sea is a close second

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40Gcm9ZTMrQ

good god... they're ALL fabulous. am going for the diamond sea, but sweet shine, expressway, titanium expose, triolgy, peace attack, sympathy for the strawberry and heather angel are a bunch of my favourite sy songs

DV'69 I guess, but all these Sonic Youth polls are really bringing it home that, much as they were a big deal to me for a large portion of my music listening career, I'm really pretty meh on them in general these days.

Next logical poll would be Sonic Youth vs. Yo La Tengo: which married couple + dependant nerds will slog on the longest as "elder statesmen" of a failed state.

Really? This polls have done nothing, but remind me that they were once my favorite band ever.

"once." Me too.

Replace "that" w/ "why" in that sentence.

also i respectfully disagree with al on the "poor timing" of more SY polls. I'd rather gorge on this stuff until people burn out than parcel out everyone's opinions on different aspects of their ouvre week by week

― da croupier, Monday, July 27, 2009 4:54 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ehh, i feel it's just generally obnoxious to have multiple threads on the same artist going on at the same time, both because people who don't care think it's cluttering up New Answers unnecessarily, and people that do care end up having all these overlapping simultaneous conversations and there's not as much of a flow to it imo.

"Titanium Expose" just rocks hard, great drumming and the main riff has kind of a cool disjointed feel to it that feels somehow atypical to SY

"Trilogy", though I'm not crazy about the 3rd part. Runner up is "Sympathy for the Strawberry".

If Madonna, Sean and Me doesn't win, I may quit ILX forever and ever...

Diamond Sea beat Expressway on this poll: IT'S THE SONIC YOUTH EPICS POLL

enjoy your last week on the board!

expressway

hmm. it'll be for the best in any case.

Seriously people...Expressway NEVER ENDS!

If you've seen the Charlie Atlas film Put the Blood in the Music with the clip of SY walking around the train tracks to the opening chords of Expressway, the idea that it could lose any poll is totally insane.

that film is BRILLIANT.

Expressway

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Good.

top three was kinda never in doubt

Aka the "Expressway" thread, apparently! Still, it's a great great song.

I was hoping it would lose so I'd have to leave. I'm assuming everybody voted for Xpressway because they couldn't bear to live in a world without my posting on ILX.

I was listened to the lock groove on Xpressway for about half an hour without realising it once when writing an essay.