I’m going to talk about albums that I adore and focus on some new stuff that I'm digging as it comes out. I thought it best to start on a high, so to this end, I give you Daydream Nation, by Sonic Youth.
It’s a record I put on late at night after a night out, lie on my bed and get lost in the ramblings and searchings of guitarists Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore.
If you’ve never listened to Sonic Youth before then this, their 5th effort released in 1988, is an ideal starting point. It’s sort of the crossover album from their noisy, dissonant and musically deconstructive past, to a more polished, melodic sound, fairly accessible if you are into stuff like the Pixies, or other 80-90’s guitar-driven bands, whilst still keeping an authentic punk edge.
Over 70 minutes, the album jangles, shimmers, rattles and hums in a glorious cacophony of sounds. I liken it to a pot of water on a stove, sound boiling over and splattering on the kitchen floor of your mind.
The first single from Daydream Nation, Teenage Riot is probably Sonic’s most well known song. Beginning quietly with Kim Gordon performing stream of consciousness prose over Moore and Ranaldo’s interlocking guitars, the song quickly picks up and Moore takes over vocal duties. Fat drums and clashing guitars ensue, and a fast paced epithet to the spirit of restless youth and modern boredom is the result.
Immediately following this is a substantially harder-edged track, Silver Rocket, discordant and fast-paced, interrupted by about 45 seconds of trademark Sonic Youth noise guitar experimentation. Similarly, the next track, The Sprawl is probably the best example of the pot of hot water analogy. A large part of the 7+ minutes of the song is given over to this sound experimentation.
Gordon and Moore’s lyrics fluctuate between sophistication and the knife, between some kind of urban cool and pop stupidity, a surreal trip across a vast expanse of sonic landscape: Shots ring out from the center of an empty field/ Joni's in the tall grass/ She's a beautiful mental jukebox, a sailboat explosion/ A snap of electric whipcrack.
This sort of style permeates the record, punk and noise and rock and dissonance and experimentation. Eric’s Trip, Total Trash, Providence, through Rain King and Kissability. The sprawling final track, Trilogy serves as a book-end, a moment which draws the album to a close, the intensity building to the penultimate climax and then, finally, silence.
Ultimately, the wonder of this album lies not in the wild spirit of experimentation, or the youthful naivete of a group of musicians at the height of their powers, but that it has been so under-appreciated for so long.
