Daydream Nation

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

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...

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.

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.

hold on to your butts

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.

Dead good innit.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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)_/¯

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.

Influential but doesn’t quite do it for me

Great in places, but not the whole album

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

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

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

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.

eh, boring.

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.

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.

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.

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.

5.0 - A blockbuster, a masterpiece. The guitars create other-wordly soundscapes, like impossibly dark, craggy mountain ranges on an inhospitable planet. I especially love the extended jams on "The Sprawl", "Total Trash" and "B) Hyperstation."

i am really just doing my work and vibing listening to this

pretty gooooooooood. reminded me of the pixies.

Sonic Youth's magnum opus, still one of the best records ever, though perhaps I have a strong bias in favor of my "musical discovery" years. Don't just listen to me though, listen to all of the bands and artists that cite this work as a major influence. Starts off with two amazing singles (or what passes for a single for Sonic Youth) but my favorite is probably the Trilogy that ends the second side.

Sounds like Sonic Youth but more pop. Another foundation of alternative rock. How many albums would not exist if these songs weren't recorded? A lot, probably.

Just realised where most of my favourite bands of the past 30 years were getting their inspiration from. Amazing album.

Loved this album. I think I enjoyed this even more than Goo!

Welp, now I'm in love with Kim Gordon, so yeah 5 stars. Pure rock perfection.

Meilenstein! Ganz Groß!

CD

What an album!

loved it, listen to BAGEL Radio he loves a lot of songs from here😅🤭

один из лучших их Альбомов у них

Stevig gitaarwerk, lange instrumentale stukken, veel variatie in tempo. Goed album!

I owned Experimental Jet Set and Dirty from back in the day, and I am glad to see that their sound hadn't changed. I enjoyed this album, as they are all journey's through sound. Loved it!

Having heard the name Sonic Youth before, I expected a lot of dissonant jangly noise, and it IS that, but weirdly, I like it? I like it a lot. I think this would fall under the genre “Shoegaze”, but it’s vastly more enjoyable to my ear than Dinosaur Jr. I will probably add this to my regular rota.

It's noisy, driving rock, but I can listen to over and over again. This is just a great album and probably Sonic Youth's best. Although everytime I listen to Sonic Youth I can hear Ellen Page telling Jason Bateman that "Sonic Youth is just noise!"

Classic album that still sounds fresh today. You can hear their influence on so much of my favorite music.

It takes a Teenaged Riot to get me out of bed. The most accessible Sonic Youth album.

Brilliant album!

Awesome. I was in tune the entire album. Definitely going to be in my playlist from now on. I can see why it was so critically acclaimed. I'd feel like trash giving less than 5 stars

One of my favourite albums of the decade, a truly satisfying double LP. Also possibly the only actual rock band of the era I care about.

Post punk shoegaze guitar is one of my favorite styles of guitar. This album & band are right up my alley. I only wish I had listened to this album when it was first released. 4.5

Raw sound. Can see where the emulation of others comes in. Good songwriting.

This feels so weighty but never collapses or bores. Pretty impressive

Love sonic youth haven't listened in a while was cool to hear again. Kim songs are a coin flip for me. Record holds up.

One of the greatest albums of my generation

I remember I didn't care for this album until I listened to it a second time. A revolution in alternative rock and just music in general, bringing the "no-wave" sensibilities and anti-authority attitudes out of the underground, and creating a masterpiece of distortion. Although he is a musical god to many, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, and Steve Shelley were the pantheon to people like Kurt Cobain as they stood for music which was powerful yet uncompromising. In all honesty, the record speaks in gibberish ninety percent of the time but I know it stands against consumerist sexist culture and that's enough. Thurston lays it all out in the first track: the world would be awesome if J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. was the president. If that sounds simple to you, fuck you.

Seminal album from one of the most intriguing bands in the last 40 years. I remember fondly discovering this work during my teenager years, listening to Teenage Riot and Silver Rocket nonstop, talking to my friends about it. No wonder why it is here!

Even the first song-Teenage Riot- deserves 10 stars.

Escuchar loco

I have always felt that Sonic Youth made great albums, but that frequently their work is brilliant, but flawed. Daydream Nation though... this is the album where they got everything right. You have all the really beautiful wandering experimentation in feedback and noise the band is known for, but it's a bit more restrained and structured. I don't know how they manage to be so catchy and dissonant at the same time, but they do it. Occasionally, there are even moments of true loveliness. It may still be a difficult listen for some, but for me it's exhilarating to hear. Fave Songs (All songs from most to least favorite): Teen Age Riot, Silver Rocket, 'Cross the Breeze, The Sprawl, Total Trash, Candle, Kissability, Hyperstation, The Wonder, Rain King, Eliminator Jr., Eric's Trip, Hey Joni, Providence

No lo he escuchado, pero Sonic Youth me gusta.

Not *exactly* my favorite album by Sonic Youth, even though it's part of of my top-five records under their name. My only real, admittedly minor gripe is its overall sound, somewhat flat and one-dimensional compared to a lot of other Sonic Youth LPs--one can see that producer Nick Sansano was more an expert for hip hop than for guitar-based bands at the time... That being said, this double LP is still a landmark album for US indie music, and its scope was unprecedented when it came out. The first two tracks--"Teenage Riot" and "Silver Rocket"--are absolute gems, and almost everyone other song on it is pitch-perfect, justifying the length of this historical masterpiece. So yes, light a candle and celebrate the riotous impact of this one, indie fans. American music has rarely sounded as essential as this particular album. Number of albums left to review or just listen to: 819 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory: 98 (including this one) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 46 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more important): 39

everything, even the catchiest hooks, are drowned and enveloped in a layer of noisy fuzz, thumping toms and crashing cymbals. It creates a really cool, edgy sound that you'll hear ripple throughout alt rock during the 90s. Sonic Youth hit the right balance of playful and dark. Some of these riffs sound almost like metal riffs, and then some boarder on pop punk and indie. The vocal melodies toe this line as well with grunt punk shouts and more welcoming bright vocal melodies. Whether it's angry or upbeat, there's always a relentless energy that is at the core of every track. This album is long as hell, but never ever stops moving; it's constantly propelling forward with noise and drums and riffs and raw, kinetic punk soul - and that can probably be attributed to the post-punk present here. It's relentless angsty, but approaches it in a unique and artistic way.

Qué voy a decir. Uno de los discos de mi vida.

An album requiring the listener to meditate on it, Daydream Nation does have the courtesy to indicate that it takes time to appreciate it fully. Mind, does such effort compensate generously. Sonic Youth became the Brian Eno of US alternative rock, in that they occupied a role of in-house philosophers, figures whose experiments and theorising plotted much of the landscape for many who would follow. Rock had investigated dissonant, disjointed guitars before (to exhaustion and nausea with Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music), but it was Sonic Youth who summarised it into a template for your standard 90s alt-rock weasels. Sonic Youth were also one of the biggest proponents of a genreless approach to music that embraced the high, low and middlebrow, rejecting those labels as unconducive to a truly explorative love of music. Sonic Youth had no qualms mixing John Cage, Albert Ayler, Led Zeppelin, the Carpenters, Suicide, Minor Threat, Madonna and KRS-One. Now, like Eno, this seems more driven by intellectual rather than emotional concerns. However, like Eno, they had good heads, so criticising them for that seems slightly churlish, even though someone could legitimately say their intellectualism is why Sonic Youth gives off too much of a chill for them. Another consequence of this is that someone who claims Sonic Youth to be their favourite band is hopelessly pretentious. Still, Sonic Youth have been warranted critical faves since they developed their approach in the early 80s. With Daydream Nation, their most celebrated album, Sonic Youth managed to place simultaneously one foot in the vanguard and the other in the relative mainstream. So gnarled guitars and R.E.M. melodies, basically. Now, Daydream Nation partially suffers from the diluting effects of every Sonny-Jim subsequently pilfering their innovations (which, in fairness, Sonic Youth would acknowledge resulted partially from their own purloinments). This perversely is in scale with their increased ambition for this album; when you break through, you want to hear everywhere the noise you pioneered, especially when others copy you. A double album made for a bit more dosh than their previous records, Daydream Nation is quite the troughful to nosh through in one visit. So yes, once again it's our old pal "rewards repeated listenings". The initial hearing may prove samey, but later the nuances will chime through. That aspect underscores the delightful paradox of this album: whilst ostensibly an uncompromising, punk-infused hard rocker, the real delights are in the subtleties, the details. Now, as it's a double, the disinclined listener won't be arsed to devote the time to comprehend it, and even the well-disposed may feel their joints start to itch at the length. But if you want it to persuade you, you'll find its disparately fluttering eyelashes will make you buy it a drink or five.

My first introduction to Sonic Youth was the Kool Thing video on 120 min, just loved the song and like any 18 year old boy I fell in love with Kim Gordon too. Not long after I checked out Daydream Nation and yeah just a great album. Probably the only one but I wish Teenage Riot was 20 mins long, I can listen that song forever.

hell yeah.

A masterpiece.

Love this album. Was going to give four stars since this is a classic, but on this listen I’m unfortunately feeling the runtimes of several tracks. Then Thurston Moore sang “there he goes again, my magic monkey friend” and the perfect score restored itself.

Dig it. Never really checked them out for whatever reason but the guitars are just killer

An album that makes me wonder if 'alternative' music still exists. How did a band like Sonic Youth become so massive and influential and could it ever happen these days for a band that sounds like this?

This album in particular is so immensely influential, you can hear it from the very start. The influence can still be heard in music released nowadays. It's noisy, unrelenting, and unapologetically experimental.

Amazing album. Want to dig in to more of their catalog now.

Recommended for a friend almost ten years ago. I consider it a fundamental of Sonic Youth. I feel it like a super natural progression from the noisiness of Sister. Over here you can find it as well but in a much worked way, it's not noise because of it rather than be with a purpose.

Insane

Blew my mind!

Teen Age Riot is one of the best opening tracks of all time, it situates the listener perfectly for what's to come on an album of hefty tracks. I love the flow and progression throughout, it all melds together so brilliantly. Favourite SY album to date. To agree with another listener, Thurston Moore is just such a dickhead. I have to attribute most of the band's success to Kim to be at peace with my listening experience; she's a goddess and a saint for putting up with Moore's shit as long as she did. Amazing album, so influential and impactful on a lot of bands I love. I adore this one.

Just the most lost-sounding album in the world; distant vocals amid swirling guitars. Occasionally a little too discordant, but impressive and influential overall.

I see why this is such a classic. I think I still like Goo better, but this is noisy punky alt rock in rare form

Classic

Já conhecia e adoro

Really good. Top 2/3 SY album for sure. Thurston Moore + Lee Ranaldo guitar sound is amazing. 9-10/10 1. Teenage Riot 2. The Sprawl 3. Total Trash

Epic. A classic. There are the obviously hooky bits, like Teen Age Riot, and there are grating that parts begin to sound perfect too with repeated listens. One of my favourite albums ever.

Hot damn this one is a banger. I have liked everything from Sonic Youth I’ve heard in the past, but this whole album takes it to another level.

Aunque en mi lista personal le di un 5, le voy a dar un 4. No venga, un 5.

Possibly Sonic's best

ну ваще зашло, никак не мог взять их и послушать и тут залетели в уши прям идеально

This is definitely a familiar album for me. My brother introduced me to the more experimental sounds of Sonic Youth in high school and it has paved the way for my love of indie rock which is where I dwell most often.