Daydream Nation
Album | Sonic Youth
Underground heroes make the great leap forward.
Daydream Nation is reflexively hailed as Sonic Youth's masterpiece. Which is not an incorrect assessment -- it's a brilliant album -- but it's ironic that many of the same people who so praise Daydream Nation use pejoratives like "major-label sellout" to describe Goo and Dirty, the higher-profile albums that immediately followed. Listened to in the context of the albums that came before and after, it's clear that Sonic Youth viewed Daydream Nation as their first foray into the commercial mainstream. Using an outside producer (Nick Sansano, known for his work with Public Enemy) and adding considerably more layers and studio polish to the sound they'd developed over their previous LPs, Daydream Nation was obviously more accessible than the likes of Bad Moon Rising. The real difference was the songs: even beyond the one-two opening punch of "Teenage Riot" and "Silver Rocket," the album is filled with instant classics like "Candle," "Eric's Trip," Cross the Breeze" and "Total Trash": songs that apply Sonic Youth's odd tunings and abstruse lyrics to instantly memorable rock frameworks. Had it come out on a label with adequate distribution, Daydream Nation might have become one of alternative rock's early mainstream crossover successes.
-
Music Review
Doolittle
Pixies -
Music Review
Meat Puppets II
Meat Puppets -
Music Review
Let It Be
The Replacements
