Daydream Nation

I could listen to the intro to teenage riot for probably a solid hour.

Something of a masterpiece. It starts off with not only one of the best opening songs on any album, but arguably the best Sonic Youth song, period. This is the alternative album you're looking for. The one where Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore and company put everything together and were so prolific they had enough gems to merit a double album. And this things takes you on a freaking journey. Sonic Youth might be like good scotch in that they're something of an acquired taste, but once you're into them, you're all in. Look no further to hear why Kurt Cobain and several others were so inspired by Sonic Youth. Just say yes.

While I'm a fan of Sonic Youth in theory, this one didn't do it for me. It was very experimental and... noisy. Just really noisy. Not very enjoyable to listen to. That said, I can ABSOLUTELY hear the foundations of a hundred other bands in this one album. It's a critical album to the american music scene. Just not one I'd want to listen to on a regular basis. It does earn bonus points for having several William Gibson allusions including a whole song inspired by Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy. Not enough to lift it past a 3, though. Did I mention it was noisy? It's just so damn noisy...

Why so much random guitar distortion? Why the voices so far away? Sounds like a demo or live recording. Not really my thing I guess.

Nothing like another excuse to listen to this unparalleled collection of 80's alternative rock. I've listened to a lot of Sonic Youth, and they're really in a league of their own - their music ranges from the insanely catchy to absolutely deranged and borderline unlistenable, and I feel they found the perfect balance of the two on 'Daydream Nation'. With that said, I will caution that the first song on this album is, at least in my opinion, far and away the best song on the album, the best song Sonic Youth ever wrote, and one of my all-time favourite songs in general. The hazy dream-pop-y intro, the relentless energy and drive, Thurston's vocals - it's just a brilliant accomplishment of a track. With that said, it's worth sticking around - you get a lot more of the band's tendency towards the more experimental later on in the album - distortion-heavy breakdowns and weird tunings are evident on such tracks as 'Total Trash' and 'Rain King', but at the end of the day, each of these tracks is enjoyable in its own way.

Possibly the greatest album of the 1980s. This sprawling record is expansive, unsettling, ponderous, noisy, and driving. Sonic Youth. This album has had an immeasurable influence on grunge, indie, DIY, etc. which continues to this day.

hold on to your butts

Uninspiring and frankly boring. Heard of this band but luckily I never listened before and I won't again. Kind of like deep sea fishing. Only need one go to know it's not for you. And I appreciate that.

Dead good innit.

It’s very rare that I don’t get to the end of an album but I had to turn this off after around 30mins when I saw I wasn’t even half way through. Mostly pretty generic garbage/garage punk but then breaking into complete nonsensical twatery. Deeply unpleasant.

Daydream Nation melted my 16-year old brain and fused itself to my taste: I cannot review this fairly. Five stars, there you go. . The songs that stand tall to me are few: Teenage Riot, The Sprawl, Providence (love a good interstitial), Rain King and Hyperstation. That’s not a bad haul, but low for one of the big boys. I know every squeak and flinch on this record, but mostly as part of a continuum: I had to play the start of Candle to remember which part of the record the title labelled. More than any other record I love, I know this as an assemblage rather than a discrete sequence of songs. I think it's something to do with the abundance of unique, fleeting peculiar guitar and amp sounds - haunted electronics. The Sprawl is my favourite due to the long, especially ghostly outro, a gorgeous motif repeated to disintegration. Returning to it for the first time in a few years was tremendously moving. This was the first SY LP I heard, so I didn't realise how glossy it was compared to the earlier classics. After I'd spent a while memorising it (could have been just a month!), I sought out others, starting with Sister, I think, and was taken aback by how freakish those records sounded. Bad Moon Rising, EVOL and Sister are flying saucers; Daydream Nation is a manmade spaceplane painted by Chesley Bones. This is a bittersweet album, as it marked their move to Geffen, and I don’t think any of their later records are as great as this and the three that preceded it. But they are all laudably different. . I've seen Sonic Youth around five times; Shellac are the only band I've seen more of. Curiously, the songs they played never decided how much I enjoyed a gig. My favourite performance was mostly songs from Washing Machine, which never snagged me (Diamond Sea apart), and they were incredible. Ten years later, I saw what was close to a greatest hits playlist at the Shepherd Bush Empire and they were lacklustre, the only detail I remember being when I pointed out Bruce Gilbert from Wire to my youngest brother, and my brother went up and got his autograph. I miss my youngest brother.

Sonic Youth looks set to be another band I just don't get the hype for. Maybe a few relistens would improve my outlook but nothing about this album was interesting to me. Also, if your fourteen track album has FOUR seven minute tracks then you need to start cutting.

10 Albums You Actually Need to Hear Before You Die Chapter 9 Does “Fuck You” Sound Simple Enough?: Sonic Youth’s “Daydream Nation” Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A corrupt Republican presidential administration, lead by a B-List celebrity and flanked by the religious right takes power with the aim of “Making America Great Again”. What? No, not him. I’m talking about Ronald Reagan. (Seriously, the whole MAGA thing was originally a Reagan Campaign slogan in 1980. You can’t say the right hates the environment…they are clearly into recycling.) People like to talk about the 1980’s as though it was a perpetual good time with neon excess and everyone living without a care in the world. In some respects that might be true, but it also ignores how much of the 1980’s set the stage for the current situation we find ourselves living here in America. With Trickle Down Economics and unfettered capitalism, shady deals with dictators for personal gain, religious influence in law making and a disdain for science and intellect…We are still living in that world and, in two days time, it’s likely going to be pushed into overdrive. Emerging from Lower Manhattan’s No Wave scene in the early 80’s, Sonic Youth represented an almost wholesale rejection of modern musical convention. With their guitars set in tunings of their own design, drum sticks under their strings, fuzz pedals working overtime and a healthy appreciation for the avant garde, they were hell bent on tearing down convention, picking up the pieces and rebuilding it in their own image. Daydream Nation, ultimately, is where Sonic Youth’s efforts to destroy and rebuild convention fully coalesced for the first time. Though they had made excellent records previously, like 1987’s “Sister”, Daydream Nation should be considered their Mission Statement: a full and total encapsulation of what Sonic Youth “is”. It also serves as document of the waning years of Reaganism in the United States and the counterculture it bred. It was a counterculture founded with a spirit of self-sufficiency, that rejected reliance on corporations and prized artistic freedom and expression. Awash with extended soundscapes and otherworldly guitar noise, Daydream Nation is a singular, untamed proclamation of the arrival American underground. Nowhere is the rejection of Reaganism’s embrace of unimpeded capitalism more explicitly evident on Daydream Nation than it is in Kim Gordon’s opening lines of “The Sprawl”: “Does this sound simple? Fuck you. Are you for sale? Does fuck you sound simple enough?” It is a pretty effective message to live your life by: Your values and sense of self should not carry a price tag. Musically, Daydream Nation couldn’t be more out of step with the popular music of its time. It is unpolished, challenging, unorthodox and uncompromising. As a result, it is truly an alternative to the status quo and it may be worth keeping this record in mind as we navigate the next few years, which are sure to be rife with hyper-capitalism and a society that increasingly demands compliance. Daydream Nation is the sound of freedom: Freedom from conformity, freedom from outdated norms and ideas…It is the freedom to do whatever you please.

I don’t know, shit like this hits some kind of sweet spot for me like this is some weird shit but I can’t help loving it, 10/10 album

I would typically vouch for this being one of the best of its era, although upon playing my copy today I was embarrassed to discover loud CD skipping noises in the middle of "Teen Age Riot"; evidently I haven't chosen to listen to this recording in over twenty years since the mp3 was first created. Shame on me.. So, basically I'm approaching Daydream Nation fresh and, frankly, it is fantastic. All the songwriters have their distinctive flavors and the result is unique (for the time) and genre-defining (for the rest of their peers). So much I love in later work (e.g., Pavement) can be found here for the first time, full of great tunes and great noise. Kim Gordon's book deservedly ruined Thurston Moore for me, but even that only knocks this classic down to 4.9* And, don't worry - I ripped another copy of "TAR" for the future

What an insane trip Daydream Nation is. Sonic Youth grips my by the first notes of the extraordinary “Teen Age Riot” and doesn’t let go until after “Trilogy”. Shelley’s drum and Gordon’s bass goes together perfectly and provides more than just the backbone of the songs, but it’s Moore’s and Ranaldo’s whirling, disorienting and unorthodox guitars that stands out as the main characters of the album. Even after dozens of listens I’m still blown back by “‘Cross the Breeze”, “Eric’s Trip” and “Hey Joni”. There’s simply no denying the greatness of this entire thing - even though they’re probably pushing the limit with the 70 minute runtime.

No matter what happens and how evolved I become in this life, I don’t think I’ll ever be into punk. Even the more “musical” punk such as this. Bangy bangy yelly yelly done.

An all-time classic!!

I listened to this album for about 2 years solidly in my 20s - the sound spoke to me - and it still does.

Came into this album thinking Sonic Youth was a pretentious band. Came out of listening to this album thinking they are a pretentious band that is also very good. I watched the documentary, 1991: The Year Punk Broke, about Sonic Youth and other bands of that era after listening to this, and boy is Thurston Moore a dickhead. Also, I read they would bring upwards of 50 guitars to a gig because of all the funky tuning and modifications they would do. I mean I'm all for experimentation but give me a break. Roasting aside, I did really like this album. The songwriting seemed strong throughout and I read that some of it was inspired by The Neuromancer, which I'm currently reading, so that got me geeked. The most impressive thing to me though was the guitar on this album! It shred of course, and even the droning noise rock bits on the outros of a lot of tracks felt interesting to me and not too overindulgent. As eye roll as it may be, the modifications to the actual hardware of the guitars and alternative playing styles made for some really interesting sounds. A sound that seems to have been a blueprint for so so many indie bands in the 2000s and 2010s, which made this seem a little less fresh to me than I'm sure it was at the time. I really liked "Teenage Riot," but I think I liked the Kim Gordon songs more because again, too cool, disinterested sounding indie white guy has been beat to death. I do think Sonic Youth contributed a lot to modern rock sensibilities and I can see myself exploring their discography further.

Sonic Youth read some William Gibson novels, dropped some acid, and made a noisy, distortion-heavy, socially conscious album. It sounds exactly like you might expect. An album you have to listen to more than once, or you'll miss a ton. Best track: Candle

I didn’t stop listening to it on the way there, but it wasn’t particularly noteable.

I was hooked from the first chorus-laden guitar chords. They built such a distinct and influential sound with this album, while still keeping enough variety to keep the album engaging through it's longer runtime.

A true 80s alt-rock classic. Sonic Youth can be hit and miss for me, particularly in album form, but not here. Opening with the best track they ever wrote, Daydream Nation somehow manages to perfectly balance their noisy, weirdly-tuned distortion-heavy brand of alternative, with a layer of polish and accessibility.

Magnificent from beginning to end. Easily one of the greatest albums ever.

Probably their best record, loads of great driving guitar parts, loads of energy, has that feel of an album that needs to be listened through start to finish.

I liked this one, though wish it had been a little shorter. Much better than some of their other albums.

This is the perfect Sonic Youth album. On earlier releases, they got too noisy at times and the songwriting was a bit lacking, while on later releases they get a bit too mainstream sounding, losing a bit of what made them special in the first place. Daydream Nation falls right in the middle and perfectly balances the noisy experimental rock tendencies of their early work and the more accessible song structures and riffs of their 90's work. Without a doubt their best. Key tracks: Teen Age Riot Silver Rocket Candle Kissability

Sonic Youth is such a cool fucking band but I’ve never been able to get into them. I tried a couple albums and this one easily hits the hardest for me. Killer fuckin blown out clean tones on a jazzmaster with blaring noice and catchy hooks. Every time I put on this album I don’t remember a single song. Do I have some sort of disease? I’d give it five but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sonic Youth has a unique sound. Weird tunings, odd chord progressions, dirty production in spots, and it's awesome. I love the guitar tones on this album. It's dirty, metallic and muddy. I like Z) Eliminator, Jr. as the final track because of that, it's like the guitar sound throughout the album progressed and culminated in that harsh tone. So many of the songs have such pretty progressions, though, and it makes for a cool contrast. I enjoy how long some of the tracks are. It creates a kind of soundscape for me that I can fall into and it doesn't feel like I get pulled out of it too early. Favorite tracks: -Teenage Riot -'Cross the Breeze -Total Trash - the chaos in the middle might be my favorite part of the album -Rain King - this got borderline sinister -Kissability - I wish more songs were led by Kim's vocals like this track -Z) Eliminator Jr. is my top track. Least favorite track is easily Providence. It didn't have enough going on to be interesting. Not related to the music at all but it's a drag they were so mean to Nardwuar. Very few artists have done that and it's a real bummer.

This was one of my favorites in my alt rock-obsessed phase from high school/early college, and it’s probably my favorite Sonic Youth album. It still sounds so big and fresh, the rare double album that doesn’t overstay its welcome… mostly. A-

I know this band a bit but never listened to an album. I get that some will say it's noise. I agree it's noise but I like it anyway.  Teen Age Riot kicks off the festivities in style and is as close as they  get to a song that people without a deranged taste in music might like. Total Trash  isn't in that user friendly zone. It's noise but it's meant to be noise. They are playing fucked up sounding guitars on purpose to create "noise art". One minute I get it and the next minute I say "C'mon".  It comes so close to going over the edge and landing in a cesspool of noise that can't be listened to  but, imo, it doesn't go over that edge.  I realize 70 minutes is a lot of any band in one sitting. I surprisingly didn't do my first "K - how much is left?" time check until midway through the trilogy.  . . . and I'm 60 for christ's sake. Full transparency: I tapped out 30 secs into when Eliminator Jr.  I like these guys and wish I had listened to their albums years ago.

It ebbs and flows from high energy to a more calm trance like rock. Heavy experimentation occurs throughout. This is a very good album.

Love the guitar through most of this album. Lyrics and vocals are average and tend to break my focus when they take center stage on the song. Caught myself thinking this part sounds like XYZ band a couple times, which I realized it was actually just that band sounding like Sonic Youth which was a cool realization.

This classic guitar-grinding, beat-driving, angst-spilling, iron-pumping album is not for the faint of heart or ear! It always gets under my skin and triggers fist pumps of rebellion and release!

To me this is where Sonic Youth really start to shine. Their songs got more expansive and yet feel more focused and infectious than before. Perhaps it was the pressure of the higher dollar studio time? I love them most when they give their songs room to breathe with extended instrumental passages. Kinda punk-prog. I'm also a fan of the jam to song method they developed these songs with. Perfect balance of capturing that wild vitality but refining it into something more structured.

Moody, noisey and cool. Can hear where lots of bands have drawn influence like Slint, Pavement Car Seat Headrest etc. Seems like the very early days of dad rock without actually being dad rock. Highlights are The Sprawl (love the spoken word) and Eric's Trip.

I really liked this album more than I thought. You could hear the punk influence in a lot of songs, which was of course distorted and experimented with. I preferred Kim's songs, but thought Teen Age Riot was a great opener. Despite it's long songs, I was engaged the whole time. Really enjoyed this and of course, bonus points for half the name coming from Fred 'Sonic' Smith of MC5. Very cool homage.

Noise but good noise, one of their really great albums but does lack the subtlety to make it really great.

Some good sounds with a lot of junk.

Some high highs but overall to me, Daydream Nation is an awkward and sometimes ponderous transition from the underground era that ended with what may be my favorite SY album, Sister, and the major label period that began with the excellent Goo. I would have given this more stars if there were fewer tracks between the classic "Teenage Riot" and humorous ZZ Top tribute "Eliminator, Jr" that bookend this album. This didn't need to be a double album. In any case, I don't think SY is going to age well, because they make so much more sense as live band than on these records. You lose a lot of the sense of humor and it's replaced with a smartass rich kidz from Connecticut type vibe. Also, you have to play this super duper loud to fully appreciate the nuances of the guitars and who is really going to do that?

Daydream Nation No 3 of the 5 Sonic Youth albums on the list. I can’t really recall much about Dirty and EVOL, but looking back at my reviews I seemed to have enjoyed them without really loving them, and I think I feel the same about this one. I definitely think they are one of the most interesting US alt rock bands, their looseness and surf pop sensibilities marry well with the interestingly distorted and scuzzy guitar noise, particularly on Teen Age Riot, the standout track. It may be that I can’t really remember the previous albums well enough but I thought you could particularly hear how influential this, for good and for ill, was on lots of the bands that followed. And despite it definitely being overlong it seemed to be more melodically interesting than the other two albums - the guitar noise framework meshing well with more conventional songwriting, and the bass and drums creating lots of good grooves, like The Sprawl and Total Trash (which the Manics must have liked). I also liked Candle and Eliminator. I think I preferred this to EVOL and Dirty, although truthfully I’d have to listen to them again to be sure. I don’t quite think though it reaches a 4, so it’s a high 3 for now and I’d like to revisit when I don’t have 11 albums to catch up on. 🕯️🕯️🕯️ Playlist submission: Teen Age Riot

I admit I went into this with a bias against Sonic Youth. They seemed to me to be the definition of style over substance, and they seemed like they viewed themselves as the coolest people ever. (See their interview with Nardwuar) Already in the first song I could hear that they were pretty innovative, as they sound like a 90s band despite the fact the album was made in the 80s. I could hear how the instrumentation(particularly the guitars) influenced great bands and albums (Loveless, The Bends) I would say they sound like an assortment of important 90s bands, but in reality I guess many 90s bands sound like them. Despite that, listening to the album confirmed some of my prejudices; the spoken word sections are meaningless and pretentious. The social critiques (lyrically) sound really basic and the album is excessively long. Still there are really interesting moments musically, particularly in the instrumental sections. The music sounds raw and at the same time very clear and layered. It sounds DIY but sophisticated and even when it's noisy and wild they create an interesting atmosphere. 3.5/5 because while it's innovative and interesting, it has it's drawbacks and to my ear's doesn't have that much replay value.

Influential but doesn’t quite do it for me

Great in places, but not the whole album

One of those albums that I'm supposed to like (a man of such discerning musical taste!) but have never got into. Some decent tracks but the amount of reverb always gives the feel of style over substance, but its interesting enough to keep my attention. Never been that keen on the vocal on some of the tracks. Having said that a solid and probably quite influential album. Highlights: Teenage Riot, Hey Joni, Kissability

For some reason I didn't enjoy this one as the previous Sonic Youth albums. I think I like the female vocalist more than the guy. It got a little better as it went on. I like the long noisy instrumental at the end of The Spawl, for example. It sounds very mid 90s post-punk so I guess at 88' they maybe defined this sound? With more heavy distortion front-and-center, 'Cross the Breeze would sound like a metal song interestingly. Lyrically it feels a bit juvenile, very HS writing feeling. I will say this album has quite a range of styles in terms of instrumentation and it's all interesting to me. 3.5 down to 3.

I love some Sonic Youth songs and I hate others. Really weird.

its not a bad album but less of few songs i didnt really clicked with it. +Nardwuar -1Point bcs yall need to be humble to interviewers especially for him

Cool band name. I gave up after the 3rd song, and that after skipping the first 2.

When I first moved down to Bournemouth in the mid 1980’s, whenever I went into town there was a vagrant/tramp/down-and-out who used to stand on a corner strumming a beaten up old ukulele at super high speed. Just the open strings mind. 

 CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING! He thought he was a legit busker and that passers by would give him cash. He was totally deluded. CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING! Some people would occasionally give him loose change. Not because they thought he was talented, but because they wanted other people to see them do it. But, of course, it just made him carry on. Every time I went into Bournemouth he’d be there CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING! Sonic Youth remind me of that old tramp guy.

Wow, got into this even less than Phrenology. Again, the flow is a major issue with me, but in this case it feels very disjointed within individual songs (outside of Teen Age Riot) and across the album. Nothing spoke to me. Glad to be experiencing music outside of what I generally like, though.

eh, boring.

After rating one of the other Sonic Youth albums we've gotten so far 1 star and another one 4 stars, my expectations for this one were pretty uncertain. Unfortunately, this one is a major dung heap again. It's just chaotic noise to me.

I hate Sonic Youth. GRANTED it might be the foundation for a lot of things to come, I just don't give a shit about any of the songs on this album, or the band in general.

They're a band who's reputation is entirely build on other musicians saying they're great. But it largely sounds like uncrafted noise... and I guess there's something to be said for that. Regardless, this will be my first and last listen.

Noisy goodness! Took me so many years to got into this, no regrets. Easy 5 stars.

I have listened to this album only once before and I thought it was just ok. But listening to it this time round I’m in love with this album. What an intro Teen Age Riot has, just sets up the whole album nicely. Now this is a 5 star album and it couldn’t have come at a better time as I’ve had shit album after shit album I thought about quitting! Not now, thank you Sonic Youth

This is an album I’ve enjoyed for many years. I spent most of the time listening to it contemplating if it is a 5 or not, and which SY album is my favourite. I concluded that this is a 5. It’s consistent, it’s raucous, it’s enjoyable. There’s no real reason for me not to give this the full rating.

Indie rock noise masterpiece

One of the great guitar albums.

The part in Eric’s Trip that sounds like an elephant is really neat to me. The guitars throughout this entire thing just rip. The hooks are really catchy within the distortion. A double album that feels worthy of its length.

I love the way they go high energy punky thrash into discordant noise that resolves into these chiming songs. Hey Joni is epic and Teenage Riot is one of the best songs ever--that riff is apex predator epic.

I didn't listen to this yesterday, but then I didn't need to. This album was my first intro to SY, and I've listened to it maybe more than any other album ever - except possibly Reign in Blood by Slayer. (If I had to pick my number one favorite album of all time, it would probably be a tie between those two.) There's not a single track on here that I don't like. Hell, I remember driving across western Kansas in the middle of the night in 1993 or something listening to Providence and that, maybe the oddest track on the album, was perfect: the lone piano, the record scratches and pops, the spoken word, and the transition to the single guitar riff that opens Candle. Fuckin a, I love this album. I think, too, this album really marks SY's transition from no wave avant noise band to a fully formed guitar rock band. They remained loud, of course, and churned out plenty of long, flailing walls of noise, but albums became tighter and more attuned to pop culture (especially when Kim G was writing them). So, yeah, fuckin a, I love this album.

If most of pop and rock are portraits or still lives with clear subjects, Sonic Youth is doing William Turner landscapes - moody and indistinct. They don’t sound like much else before them, and definitely bridged the early indie bands of the 80s to the 90s indie scene. That’s probably a good thing given their incredibly pretentious name. This is one of my favorite records of theirs, including the Gerhardt Richter cover. Teen Age Riot, Total Trash and the Trilogy are great. I even like a throwaway like Providence which manages to be funny and sad at the same time.

5/5 - Noisy in all the right ways. One of the best leadoff tracks ever. I love Sprawl and Hey Joni. Wandering guitars, far off vocals, punk art. Just a great package that challenges and pleases my eardrums.

Really like it. Punky

One of the best indie rock albums ever recorded. Captures a moment in musical time, a perfectly paced album that hasn't grown stale in the years since release.

Dark psychedelia for the 80s, pushed through thrashy punk.

An all-time favourite for me. The album where Sonic Yoith managed to perfectly fuse noise and pop songwriting.

I think this was my introduction to Sonic Youth back when I was at university and it started an adoration for the band and its members that continues to this day. I know a lot of people write this off as just noise, but I genuinely think that Sonic Youth manage to draw such stunning melodiousness from that noise.

Daydream Nation is the embodiment of the sprawl. It's a long album that verges on improvisation, with unapologetic vocals and fast searing overdriven guitars and long winding instrumentals and repeated musical motifs sprinkled throughout. Its lyrics capture youthful 80s disillusionment with its mix of science fiction allusions and surrealist themes. In this way it feels almost apocalyptic, a death by a thousand cuts. So much has already been praised about this album it's hard to add much of anything unique to the discourse. I will say, Sonic Youth is a band I never got into very much when younger. I didn't see the appeal, didn't have the patience I guess for the longer songs. After listening closely due to this generator, I got it. I went back and listened again. Yeah, it's great.

black friday is just weeks away as i spend imaginary times in guitar center looking at that one instrument the perfect alternative instrument with the music blasting slowly creeping flooding out of the speaker and into the room, a thousand issues of madness floating together toward me, submerged emerged isn't that good? lifelike actual size pain continues until everybody's favourite 7/4 song sounds again from the far side of the moon, singing bout new guitars lasagnas five star daydream, think i'll buy season ticket for my supported football team, gooddamn crazy floating reverb drained feedback wails, hypeing me up like continuously drinking coffee but in the end sleeping in front of tv, dreaming of elevating myself up into outer space and you asked, can you stop writing such a personal "review" that is even not a review? i said no, and you asked again, do i wanna know what happened regarding your shame of not being a good enough guitarist? no, i said, but i am the one that build its life upon alternative rock and noise rock and shoegaze and couldn't even get hold of the holy sword of the genres... is this really happening, or is this not happening? i don't know what will happen when i look up to my shiny stars and thought that the instrument has become such a crucial part of them that i just don't fucking know what will i think when i finally get hold of it... will i think of them in tears? will they hate me? will they just say nothing? so load up on guns and kill all my dreams my hopes my imaginary friends, and watch every song becoming a weeping song and before the radio dropped dead, heaven knows if i'll still be weeping long. 5/5

BLACK MIDI OWE A GREAT DEAL TO SONIC YOUTH

I forgot how great this album is.

Absolutely phenomenal album. One of the best of its era. And I know everyone that loves it likes to call out Teen Age Riot for how great it is, and rightly so, but 'Cross the Breeze is the absolute knockout punch of this record. A true behemoth of a song if I've ever heard one.

I’m at a 5. I think this album is an acquired taste of sorts; for its time, it’s a slightly unnatural blend of the shoegaze that was, the heavy metal there is, and the grunge that soon would be. It leans into a lot of heavier guitar tones, focusing on the “sonic” side of Sonic Youth, much like “Goo” did, and while it’s not complimented as nicely by some more sophisticated buildups & chords, this album overwhelms that issue by just creating a more concrete atmosphere that carries over from track to track. It feels like a heavy album, even with a lot of these tracks just being generalized teenage-y first-world shit (frustration with politics, love life issues, lost marijuana, LSD trips, ego trips, etc), and I just think the soundscape itself is super cool to sit in. Much like “Goo”, you have to be a little more present in the moment with these tracks, since the instrumental shifts really sell the ebb & flow of the album – vocals & lyrics have a presence here, but half of the time, I found the lyrics nonsensical & the vocals (mostly from Thurston Moore as opposed to Kim Gordon, who honestly has some weaker stuff here) sound like Bob Dylan got kinda trapped in there with them & went along with it. “Rain King” in particular feels like a direct rip on his flowery, verbose lyrical style, and it has far more of a vocal twang that just screams parody to me. They don’t matter as much here, though they do occasionally have their moments. Unlike “Goo”, I can’t say there’s a dropoff here – a slight homogenization boils up by the second half, due to the first half having really long tracks & since this is a 70 minute album as opposed to a 49 minute one (though the pacing feels better, somehow). I only found one track to really hit a stale point by itself, and that was “Kissability”. Past that, I just found myself pretty damn satisfied for the whole thing, especially through the first 10 tracks. As I said though, it’s an acquired taste; if you’re not into the shoegaze of the era, or the heavy metal, or if the grunge aspects are underbaked here, combined with a long runtime that can occasionally feel like it’s going nowhere or getting too same-y, then the floor here is a very understandable 3, and I wouldn’t blame that. Hell, I could even forgive a 2 under the right explanations. For me, this just worked; I think the intensity & the energy for most of the album glides really nicely, and the vocals, for as Dylan-y and non-melodic as they occasionally feel, tend to work for the more frustrated & grumpy tone this album usually takes. I do think I would’ve given this a 3 or a 4 if it had popped up earlier in the list (or hell, if it had been our first Sonic Youth album), but hearing some of their other stuff, as well as a lot of surrounding albums within this space certainly helped a bit. I don’t think it meets the critical acclaim as a top 10 album of the 1980s like that (though it’s pretty damn good for a rock album), but I generally see where the critics are coming from. I enjoyed it, and while there are probably flaws I could’ve touched on (especially in shaving down the runtime here and there), I think those are for other people who disliked this more to amplify. I’m personally at a 5; I just liked it a lot. P.S.: I now do feel fatigued from hearing a shit ton of overdriven guitar at high tempos for the last few weeks. Enough with the damn “Atomizer”s & the “Double Nickels on the Dime”s & now this – I just want some nice, happy, fun pop music tomorrow, or anything chill.

I wish I was a teenager in early 1990 to discover this and realize that you don't need to be a stupid rockstar and live the indie dream. But I was a stupid toddler.

Kljub poslušanju ceuga fuka adjacent zadev v najstniških letih, iz nekega razloga nikol nism Sonic Youth raziskala. Dva dni nazaj je blo 37 let odkar je tale album izšel. Prv komad, "Teen Age Riot", mi je všeč. Naslednji, "Silver Rocket", se začne bolj punky, dokler na rata sam noise za neki cajta, po se pa počasi prelevi nazaj v prvotno obliko. Zanimiv je, k majo nek specifičn svoj zvok. "The Sprawl" mi je amazing. " Cross the Breeze" sam šopa, dokler še bl ne šopa, dokler se kr naenkrat ne umiri in počas zaključ v čist drugem vajbu. In mislim, da bi loh že par komadov nazaj rekla, da škoda, da nism v najstniških letih zatavala tud sm, cause I would love it. Oziroma, hm, I wasn't ready for this. Takrat sm mogla derivative preposlušat, da zj loh tole cenim. To bo en teh albumov, k bom še pršla nazaj. Hm, začetek "Total Trash" mi ringa a bell, pomoje ta komad poznam. Jap. "Providence" je k iz neke horror igre & telefonska tajnica? Edini ne-komad. In, sm že pri zadnjih treh komadih, k nj bi skupaj tvoril okol 14 minutno celoto. A fak, "Hyperstation" (srednji komad od "Trilogy") tud poznam od prej. Fin je. Je kr a trip cel album in ne nujno za vsacga. Noisy, eklektičen, komadi so dolgi po 7 minut. Ampak zraven pa mi ta noise popraska nek itch in melodije so mi všeč.

This one was so great to delve into but one day is definitely not enough with this album. It is just starting to reveal itself and the journey it took me on needs to be enjoyed again. It's awesome to hear when future artists and albums are shaped by the sound of another. That is definitely the case with this album and this band in general.

When I think of Sonic Youth, I often remember the scene in Juno where the main character angrily shouts something along the lines of "I listened to more Sonic Youth and it all sounds the same!" It's not an unfair criticism of the band who were so determined to try to stay underground that they rarely branched out from their characteristic sound (with occasional exceptions before running back to their comfort zone). I say all of this as a fan. I love Sonic Youth but I admit that you can't really sit and listen to more than two albums in a row without it sounding the same. So if you had absolutely had to pick only one of their albums that you could ever listen to again, it's a safe bet that the majority would pick "Daydream Nation", the band's magnum opus. It would absolutely be my choice. It's the point where their sound matured, where they learned to channel their live performances into recordings, where their indie label street cred reached its greatest peak. Each of the three main vocalists has some of their best work here (Kim Gordon on "Cross the Breeze", Lee Ronaldo on "Hey Joni", and Thurston Moore on "Candle" are a few highlights worth mentioning). For me, this is one of the albums that truly ushered in the 90s. It didn't create the blueprint for noise rock or grunge but it sure offered a lot of inspiration. Sonic Youth could have stopped here and basked in their cult status. But I'm not mad that they kept going. "Daydream Nation" is arguably their best but they did continue to make some great music after, even if it's very similar. One of my favorite concert memories will always be seeing this album played live in its entirety.

Loved it. Its going into standard rotation.

No wave classic

great album. classic distortion

My favorite from Sonic Youth and has been an inspiration for me many times. While I do enjoy Sonic Youth’s more experimental and noisy side I really love the more focused and structured side presented on this album. Easy 5 for me.

Wow, these folks have been at it a long time. I've heard a couple of songs from them, but haven't heard anything else. I immediately hear their influence in several bands I like. I hear At the Drive-In, Nirvana, and Frodus, among others. Is this considered post-punk? Good stuff, whatever it's called. This album was a banger. 5

Almost gave it six stars by accident. An all-time favourite and I only regret that my desktop doesn't have near enough volume to play this at blindness-inducing volumes.

Rock Band 2 was cool, right? Besides completing it with my beloved draughter, it was the first time I heard "PDA" by Interpol. But that is beside the point. Because I also believe it was the first time I heard "Teen Age Riot" by Sonic Youth. Of course, I knew Sonic Youth. I bought Goo in high school. It had some stuff I liked, but I was not inspired to collect Sonic Youth's discography. I think they set to punk out on their major label debut so they leaned into the noise. I now think it is a shame that I did not also pick up Daydream Nation. Dare I say that Daydream Nation is more accessible than Goo? Of course I dare say it. Talk is cheap. I mean, Daydream Nation still has its share of noise. But as I was listening to Daydream Nation, I wondered if I coined the term "prog punk." I never bothered to check. I would probably be inclined to give the album 4.5 stars, but since I cannot and I am feeling nostalgic, 5 stars it is.

A true achievement. The album where all members are firing at their max potential. A masterpiece

Guter Alternativ Rock, nicht geeignet für Autofahrt mit Familie.

Pure bliss! This was my first record of Sonic Youth, and still love to revisit it at times. It encapsulated my teenage angst with comforting distorted guitars, noise and endless dreamy chords driven by anger and destruction. The surreal and ambiguous lyrics, whether in "Hyperstation" ("Daydreaming days in a daydream nation"), "Hey Joni" or "Eric's Trip" and the reoccurring themes of cultural decay, consumerism, and the media did the rest for me at that time. 5/5

One of my all time favorites, happy to see it here. Dreamy and driving at the same time.

listening to Teenage Riot will always make me think about sitting by the campus greenhouse on a silent, chilly autumn night. laying on the garden bench and staring up at the stars. the sound of deer rustling through the nearby bushes. feeling a million miles away from the rest of the world. perfect.

Probably the best Sonic Youth album, if you don’t like this then you’re probably not going to like anything by them, or most of 90s US indie rock. It’s like if Trout Mask Replica was actually good (I don’t know, haven’t listened yet)

I mean, are you gonna liberate us girls from male white corporate oppression? Tell it like it is!

My favorite SY album.

I listened to this album a lot in my early teen years, but hadn't picked it up again in forever. It still holds up.

🗯 A noisy-as-fuck masterpiece. It kicks off with ‘Teen Age Riot’ — not only one of the best opening tracks on any record, but arguably the best Sonic Youth song, period. From there, Daydream Nation sprawls out like a double-vinyl fever dream: noise, melody, dissonance, and beauty smashed together until you’re not sure if your speakers are breaking or being reborn. Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, and Steve Shelley put everything they had into this one, enough brilliance to justify the sprawl of a double album. It’s the moment where their downtown art-noise instincts met actual rock ambition — still messy, still wild, but undeniable. Sonic Youth are like good scotch: an acquired taste, but once you’re in, you’re all in. It’s easy to see why Kurt Cobain and an entire generation of alt-rock bands worshipped at this altar. Daydream Nation is the blueprint — restless, uncompromising, and still a mind-melter decades later. Just say yes. Verdict: Essential (the alternative nation’s constitution, etched in fuzz and feedback) For fans of: Nirvana, Pavement, My Bloody Valentine, sprawling guitar symphonies that feel like the end and beginning of the world

It's a alternative rock landmark, it begins with a call to arms and ends with a trilogy in classic rock style. Classic and a landmark double lp.

Great album