This is the quintessential Sonic Youth album. It may not be their best, but it is the pivotal moment in their discography and should be the go-to recommendation for anyone trying to get into the band. CIS and BMR are too edgy and inaccessible. Sister and DDN have been so influential that their greatness eludes listeners already familiar with post-88 indie rock, to the point where they can sound generic and "bland" to a new listener. Daydream suffers even more than Sister due to being looser and less immediate. Anything after Daydream can practically be considered a different band.
This one has the perfect balance between melodic sensibility and a unique experimental approach. It's the ideal starting point.
Sonic Youth fucking sucks. Every band they influenced did what they tried to do better.
Ryder Ward
Incredible album cover. Marilyn Moore and especially Shadow of a Doubt are some of the most immaculately written songs ever devised. They captured lightning in a bottle here. Easily their best.
Aaron King
Name one (1) band that did whatever it is you think Sonic Youth were trying to do.
Elijah White
>It may not be their best It is though. Sister is perhaps more refined, and Cotton Crown might be their very best song, but Evol seems a bit tighter as an album. Plus, it doesn't help that most versions of Sister have Master Dik at the end now, what a monumentally cringe song that is.
>Daydream suffers even more than Sister due to being looser and less immediate I think the problem is Daydream is that it's a fucking double album. Definitely a mixed bag compared to their previous three albums >Teen Age Riot >The Sprawl >Cross the Breeze >Candle Love these songs but could care less about the rest of the album.
Ian Gonzalez
I get your point, it's probably their most straight ahead album but I think you're discrediting Goo too much. That was their mainstream breakout record after all. I don't like Goo that much but it's funny that you didn't even mention it. It's probably their best record cover I'd agree with that. Shadow of A Doubt is my favorite from the album, I'm a big Kim fan anyway though so it's not unusual for my favorites to be Kim's songs. Not that guy but I can safely say that Polvo was a Sonic Youth worship band that was actually pretty good.
To continue the EVOL conversation I have to say it's a fucking travesty the way that the track listing has been botched for so many years and never fixed. Seemingly all CD copies have the cassette release track listing on the back of the CD but the actual song order on the CD is different. This mistake carried over onto Spotify which is just inexcusable. Spotify also doesn't have Expressway To Yr Skull, what the fuck?
Also I'd just like to show some love for Dirty which is my favorite of theirs. I think it's got their most immaculate songs on there such as Sugar Kane, Chapel Hill, Orange Rolls and Angel Spit, Drunken Butterfly, and Wish Fulfillment. They all just blow my fucking mind. Lots of enjoyment in what came before Dirty and there are a few songs here and there that came after, but I think Dirty is their masterpiece. Sister and Daydream Nation are great runner ups too.
Thomas Jones
>have been so influential that their greatness eludes listeners already familiar with post-88 indie rock This sort of thing happens waaaay more often than anyone in later generations realizes or cares to admit. I'm guilty of ignoring this phenomenon a lot.
Xavier Garcia
>better than goo picrel was my first sonic youth album, and it made me hate them. i didnt get the appeal. its just pixies but worse. after i discovered their other shit (specifically some live in florida from 1988) i started really respecting sonic youth.
>Spotify also doesn't have Expressway To Yr Skull, what the fuck? It does, under the alternate title Madonna Sean and Me
Henry Thompson
>(1) band that did whatever it is you think Sonic Youth were trying to do. sonic youth's influence is all over indie. pick a band (YOU) yourself like more than sonic youth, and there's a very good chance that band was influenced by sonic youth and (in your opinion) are "better" than sonic youth.
>I think the problem is Daydream is that it's a fucking double album More or less my point, it wouldn't need to be a double album if the songs were tighter—less progressive and improvisatory—but that's exactly why I like it so much more than Sister. It makes their previous albums seem almost rushed in comparison. Eventually it just comes down to personal taste. The songs you singled out are definitely amongst my favourites but I love every song on the album, though some took longer to get into than others ("Eric's Trip" and "Rain King" in particular). >discrediting Goo Not discrediting it, or saying their later work is bad. I read a quote from Thurston or one of the others saying that Daydream was essentially the culmination of everything they were working towards, and after that they had to "reinvent themselves" as a completely new band.
My point is just that Goo appears to be the obvious album to start with if you don't already have an inclination towards experimental rock, in which case I would just say start chronologically.
Dylan Brooks
shes like 60 in this and could easily still get it.
