daydream nation... fo sho

sister for me. the first sonic youth album i heard and still the best. 'rather ripped' is good tho

DDN all the way

Sister all the way. Daydream is great, but the former is so nasty sounding (in a good way) that it evokes that garage-band feel. I nominate (C/K)otton (C/K)rown as best SY song EVER!

Daydream Nation. In my opinion, the guitar is just way more "Sonic Youth".

Daydream Nation

sister baby.

Daydream Nation by a mile. I'm not a big fan of Sister, it's too patchy.

But yeah, they were untouchable around 86-88

This one is so hard. I went with Sister because I've played out DDN and I'm more into Sister now. I think the two are equal though.

Sister for sure. The philip k. dick imagery is brilliant! Love that record. Daydream is just a bit too classic rock huge for me.

this is a tuffy. dragging this thread out the grave because I woke up this morning and put on Sister.

man o man!

both albums get my heart to pumping a thousand miles an hour. each different in tone and atmosphere. it's the production and the length that separates the two. Sister has thuddy drums and is more obscure with the guitars with that EVOL darkness. Daydream Nation is all in-yr-face guitars and much more accessible. well, whatever.

tuff call. both albums are in my DNA. Sister is a great lover but Daydream is a fucking beast to square off with.

Sister. No question. DDN is great. But Sister is amazing.

Ridiculous question. Sister of course. Love of course DDN too, but it´s not even close that genius of Sister. I think DDN was the album SY started their trip to mainstream record company. Never could have been possible if they had stayed into experimentalism of those earlier albums. Of course there are some also in DDN, but mostly the tunes are much more conventionally rockin than earlier. But anyway rockin in a great way.

Agreed. I love ddn but it feels more subdued to me.

Nowadays I say Sister.

I've listened to DDN more than any other album by any band, and it would've been my favourite SY album until about a year ago. But I find myself preferring Sister now, despite Hot Wire My Heart. A difficult decision but I go with Sister :)

DDN has a special place into my heart also, it was my second SY-album to hear, quite soon after Goo. That time I had very little money to buy albums, so I borrowed DDN from library. And it was the only SY-album there. Really listened it a lot, also Goo and when Dirty came, listend it also lot (didn´t buy it myself, borrowed it from my friend). Finally wanted to buy (and had money) SY-vinyl and it was Sister. It was love at the very first moments when Steve´s drums started!

I remember when there was a article from SY in one Finnish independent magazine right after Dirty. The interviewer also made a review from their albums and he said DDN was disappointment when it came (he had listened SY from the BMR). Then I didn´t understand him, but now it´s easy to me.

It's an impossible choice, they are both ridiculously great. If I had to pick one I'd say Daydream Nation, but only because Eric's Trip is one of my favorite SY songs. IMO almost every SY album could hold there own here in one way or another.

Sister

DDN may be more ambitious, etc, but Sister is still one of the most relentlessly exciting albums I've ever heard. And I hated the DDN cover. The Sister cover was perfect, Stuff to obsess over - and in the case of the Audrey Rose(?) pic, wank over. DDN had a fucking blurry candle on it. When I first saw it I thought it was some sort of horrible mistake.

I really love all the SY-album covers, always also loved DDN cover. Candle symbols me very much of it all, that´s still good in this world. Really beatiful cover. Like Matmos, really love also all the albums, but never could say experimental jet set their best album.

I'd agree with that, I was just trying to not be negative. It's always had a special spot for me because it's the first one I bought right when it came out.

ok, i'll say Sister since I've spent more time with it going all the way back to high school. DDN I didn't hear till I was 20?...21?

ugh!! but DDN has that psych cathartic feedback freak out at the end of the Sprawl. one of my fav moments alongs with the Trilogy? Silver Rocket break down? Lee songs? Teenage Riot? sheeit!!! massive devastation of an album. leaves me a wreck everytime.


also, what's wrong with Hot Wire my Heart? I love the cover. it fits in with the cyber punk hallucinations and possibly equal with the original.

Sister just sounds so good. I don't rate DDN as highly.

I think this is one of those "favorite" vs. "better" issues for me. Sister is probably my all time favorite SY album, but I can't bring myself to say it's better than DDN. It's not. Daydream Nation is a more solid, seamless album, and there isn't a single missed opportunity or out of place moment.

Frankly, Sister has some minor imperfections. I don't really love the way it ends, even though I like Master-Dik as a song. But with an album that starts out so strong, with such an unhinged and kickass set of opening tracks, I wish it ended with an equally powerful moment.

With Daydream Nation, there is no "I wish." It's all exactly how it should be.

my thoughts exactly..
funny, couldn't have expressed it as accurately as you did there...

As "always vinyls" -person I say that White Kross is that perfect ending of an album as it can be. Master-Dik is just cd-bonus and I can say the same words also from Bubblegum as cd ending as you said about Master (can you imagine also better ending of an album than expressway?). Only not so good song in Sister is Hot Wire, but even it fits so well to it. There are many more in DDN (Erics trip, Teenage Riot, Rain King, Total Trash).

sister has PIPELINE. that is all.

Wait, are you saying Eric's Trip, Teenage Riot, Rain King and Total Trash are "not so good" songs? If so, I definitely disagree on all counts.

I actually like "Hot Wire My Heart." It's odd to have a cover on an album like that, but not unheard of. Minutemen covers "Dr. Woo" and all.

I honestly love every minute of Sister. There's nothing on it that I don't like. But I don't think every moment is necessarily perfect either. Daydream Nation is a seamless, perfect album. Everything is in the right place. The pacing is exquisite. It begins and ends on two of the most powerful Sonic Youth songs, and everything in between is utterly glorious.

Again, Sister is probably my favorite SY album, but I can't say it's better than Daydream Nation. I don't know where DDN falls in my list, but whether it's #2 or #5, it's a 100% perfect album, without question.

Exactly that reason Dark side is not my favourite Pink Floyd album, it´s Atom Heart Mother. I love both DDN & Dark Side, but just because they´re both very perfect albums, they´re also little bit boring comparing to Sister and Atom Heart.

DDN gives me goose bumps. of course like all my favorite music does. at some point during the album after Eric's Trip it all melds and is total vibrations. it makes you feel righteous.

preferably on wax. the grooves slide and just slay harder.

Well, maybe "not so great songs" is better (SY hasn´t made bad songs) because Silver Rocket, Sprawl, `cross the Breeze, Hey Joni, Candle, Kissability and Trilogy are so fuckin`amazing great, those rest are just mediocre in SY cataloog. Teenage Riot is of course great opener, but it was also the first song I heard from SY and really didn´t make me understand how special band SY was. If my first song had been Schitzophrenia or even Candle, I think my SY-trip would have started immediately.

I definitely love "Candle" and "Schizophrenia" both. They might be my two most likely choices for favorite SY song. But "Teenage Riot" still makes my heart race after all these years. As a piece of music it changed my life, and had a lot to do with my ultimate decision to call Sonic Youth my favorite band, a statement I haven't gone back on for one second in well over 15 years. Teenage Riot (and, oddly, Tuff Gnarl) probably had more of an impact on me than any other SY song.

Thurston's vocals nearly ruin Candle for me. A shame, because those riffs are beautiful.

I know DDN & Teenage are iconic to the most SY-fans, to me they have never been. Of course I listened DDN really much when hadn´t heard Sister, EVOL etc. but these days when I want to listen SY, it´s very rare DDN that I put on. But when listening it, always enjoying it like all the SY albums.

Candle is into my top10 Sy songs. Although Thurston & Kim are not singers like Lee is, I think Thurston does one of his all time best vox in studio Candle version. I have heard some live version where he´s really badly out of tune. I don´t think that song would have become so great if Lee had sung it.

I naturally appreciate DDN`s place in rock history. In that album Sy succeed to put together their art and commercial potential (no idea how much DDN has sold). They were ahead of their time, really very possible grunge wouldn´t ever happen without that album. Cover is also one of those iconic rock covers like Floyd´s Dark Side, Bowies Hunky Dory, Velvet´s first etc.

beautiful mortte.

Wow, seriously? Because I think it's one of his best performances. I love "deadpan Thurston," and that was back when he was still layering his vocals to give them that weird echoed sound, like on later highlight "Disappearer."

Honestly Thurston's delivery is one of the main reasons why I love Candle so much. That and that insane intro. Just a great song all around.

I love Candle. people who can't sing should sing more. people who shouldn't sing should hang out in bookstores and coffee shops discussing shit like politics and music and art trying to get laid while butting heads opinions.

I'm confused. Are we suddenly connoisseurs of trained vocalists here in the Sonic Youth board? Do we suddenly, like, not listen to punk music here?

Here´s vocalist I really love at this moment (naturally his music too). I believe he has haters too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzkTXu-BK74

Sonic Youth texted me they told me to post and tell y'all Daydream Nation is better ;)

I like the Silver Jews. The Fall are my favourite band. Meat Puppets and Beat Happening rule. Etc etc.

Thurston just kinda blows on Candle. The song is more than redeemed by everything else. I still dig the song. But that bit after he says "dog star jivin'" or whatever. So bad. Usually I like Thurston's vocals, so it's weird :)

Mayo Thompson is great too, Mortte. Love the Red Krayola.