376) Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

A thirty-year career that may still be going if it wasn’t for the fact that sadly after twenty-seven years Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon announced they were to divorce. As a man who has been through a divorce, I can fully understand this, there’s a reason people get divorced, they don’t get on and don’t want to be together, how the hell could these people have continued making music.

They left behind fifteen studio albums and became a named band without deviating from their principles and what they felt was the right sound, their sound.

Daydream Nation was their fifth record and although only twelve tracks long you will need to spend time with this record as its clocks in at over seventy minutes.

If you are new to the Sonic Youth world then Daydream Nation may take a bit of work, if you persevere the feedback, the melodies, the riffs, the interplay between Moore and Lee Ranaldo, a rhythm section to die for in Gordon and drummer Steve Shelley they will slowly start to worm their way into your brain and then the music will eventually hit. 

What about the songs you idiot I hear you ask, well Teen Age Riot opens with just a guitar strumming along drums flicker in and out then at one minute thirty we are off as the riffs arrive and Thurston’s slacker voice arrives, it’s a glorious start and Silver Rocket is almost straight ahead punk apart from the meltdown halfway through.

Kim Gordon takes the lead on four tracks The Sprawl starts out excellently but the added three minutes at the end does not give me anything, ‘Cross the Breeze, Shelley is on fire and the she matches him, Kissability who is arguing with her on the sleaziness of fame and she ends the record with Eliminator Jnr a great riff as she raps/shouts us to the finish.

We are way over here, so try Total Trash, this has all the elements of Sonic Youth, a solid rhythm, guitar riffs that go round and back again, then feed off each other and a perfect vocal from Thurston. If that gets you dive in.

Yes, they go all over the place, they lead you down one path with a riff and bring you back with a sudden shift, it’s an exhilarating ride of a record, its challenging and you will not fall in love with it on first hearing but over time I can only hope that you connect with it, I did.

7/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: Total Trash