This is one of the "common truths" in R´n´r-world. And I think many keep saying that "truth" even they´re never heard those after exile albums. And I bet nobody here in SYG except me has listened Voodoo lounge and Bridges to Babylon entirely. My opinion is that they´re better than most of the albums that was made in nineties.

I've been enjoying the horrors alot recently. The nme suck them off bigtime so im bound to get shit for that

You'd be wrong there. ;)

You'd be wrong there. ;)

Every facet of my musical taste annoys someone to some degree. Its Almost like this is a redundant question... anyway, heres Mike and the Mechanics to restore you to equilibrium

Not utterly, but largely. Its bulkily shite.

Jet Set is so not shit. It's a fantastic album. When you really break it down, there isn't a single pockmark on it. It is not SY's best but my god, it actually changed my life more than any of their others.

Like a lot of people here (sounds like, anyway), ETJSTANS was the first SY album I was exposed to. So it forever shaped my outlook of the band, and that outlook is based on that album and its ferocity and weirdness. at first I thought SY was a Beck-type band... then I was exposed to the real world of sy but it all started with EJS.

"Sweet Shine" is one of the best sy songs on record ever. I love it. And we all remember 'bull in the heather" creeping onto mtv late at night! EJS was my introdution to the whole thing, and will always be special to me.

Truth! Actually, it's not my favorite Kim song at all, but it's totally up there among both SY overall and Kim tunes. Not as good as Sympathy for the Strawberry though.

I personally wouldn't go that far, but it's evident that you think so highly of it because it was your introduction. I wasn't trying to insinuate that it's amazing or anything, just really fun to listen to every once in a while. Has two of my favorite SY songs (Bull in the Heather and Skink). It is weird to hear how they incorporated a sort of "pop" style with some of the elements of their previous work. I still haven't gotten into dirty... but it's probably the only one I haven't heard many times. just an odd phase for the band and I understand completely why majority of their fan base dislikes it. I guess I'm just one of the few. Another I really like is the self titled release. That one really stands out as well. It has perplexed me quite a bit that I've hardly seen it mentioned around here.

Jet-set is my least favourite SY-album. But it´s still one of the 20 best albums of the nineties in my opinion. I was very disappointed when it came, but I have learned to love it later.

The first album is just great, very unique in SY-albums. I love it immediately when I heard it. And Dirty is also just great!!! It was third SY-album I heard. When I heard 100% first time, I thought had they gone into some kind of Nirvana-style. I was still a little bit unsure with Swimsuit, but then came Theresa and I knew this is the band I love.

Dirty is great!! I really don't understand all the hatred surrounding it. SY did grunge better than any of the grunge bands. "100%" is like the perfect grunge song... It was a time-piece. A product of an era. The 120 minutes era.

Plus, the second half of Dirty is flawless. There's some absolutely great jamming on that album. Everyone else in '91 was jamming Jane's Addiction style- major chords and pseudo-metal shredding... SY was doing their own thing while at the same time making the best product out there.

Dirty is three times the record Nevermind is.

I also love the s/t debut. It's got a great sound to it, and has a few of my favorite tracks. "Burning Spear"... what a great intro for the band! I wish they'd incorporated more of that dub/reggae influence into their later work, but I guess shifting drummers made that tough.

Am I the only one here who unabashedly loves every single album SY has ever done?

nah

yeah, that's ridiculous

i'd listen to dirty over nevermind any day of the week

nevermind obviously had a bigger impact on the world, but 20 odd years later dirty sounds soooo much better than nevermind

It's ridiculous you are putting those records one against the other. And useless, like most things you lot say.

Comparisons are odious.

No. I do too...

I don't. I love a lot of them. Some I only like, but at least there are none I dislike.

I tend to find the stuff post-Dirty to be a little boring.

Ooh touched a nerve! ;)

Of course it's ridiculous, you stick-in-the-mud... and as useless as any comparison. But I did it, and that's that so lighten up.

Besides, they're both Butch Vig recordings of semi-similar bands making a break for pop success. Nevermind doesn't sound anywhere near as good as Dirty, though it is a freaking monolith.

No. They don't sound like records by similar bands. If they do, please tell me.

When Nirvana started out Nevermind was how they wanted their music to be recorded. SY never imagined making something as slickly produced as Dirty, it took 10 years to get to that stage. Theyre very different bands in terms of ethos in any case. But still, people who say Dirty is a better album than Nevermind are (often) trying a little too hard to be cool.

I know many people in certain elements would hate me for my rediscovered and unabashed love of The Jesus Lizard.

I catch your drift, and honestly I'm not even sure I agree with what I said. I think it's better produced, and a better example of the music of that era, but the actual songs on Nevermind are really and truly great.

I like SY more than I like Nirvana, so I probably prefer Dirty and definitely listen to it more often, but I wouldn't put anyone down for thinking Nevermind was better.

I think Nevermind is better but I tend to reach for Dirty before Nevermind simply because Nevermind was so overplayed, not only "out there" but in my own home.

Depends on what you mean by similar. But no, you're right that they've got very different vibes.

I think also Dirty is better album than Nevermind, although I like both albums. I don´t think they´re totally similar, but not also far away to each other. I think it´s just natural to make comparisons, I can say for example that Beatles Sgt. Pepper is better album than The Cure Kiss Me although they´ve made in the different times and I like them both.

I'm in that same boat. However, when it comes to SY records I like to play, Dirty is one that I listen to the least. I like the album (minus Youth against Facism), but it kind of sounds weird when compard to the rest of their albums.

I love also every Sonic album, but I think some of them are better than the others.

Well put. Besides, it's kind of fun to look at similarities and differences between different music.

Well yes, this is defnitely the case. I have my favorite too. And Dirty is definitely one of my least favorites, but I still love it and SY's my favorite band. Is it really so weird that I prefer Dirty to the most played-to-death album of my lifetime?

No. Played to death albums, however great, are not that interesting.

Well, I don´t have any Sonic-album I have played-to-death. I try to avoid that also in all the albums I think it´s great. But of course when I was very young I listened a lot for example some Creedence Clearwater, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd -albums. But I think there was a time, when I didn´t listen them for years (maybe ten), so when I have listened them again quite recently (maybe once in five years) they´ve sounded again so great!

By the way, I really love Time Loves a Hero song and I have been wondering, is the whole album as great, have you heard it? Of course it´s very typical in the end of the seventies album that there are some great songs, but the whole entity is mediocre.

SY were excellent in the 80s. After that, They only had their moments for me. The only album I'd say is "great" after that decade is Sonic Nurse.

I auditioned it one time when I was thinking of buying it. I didn't like it at all. They were really done by this time.

Wow. Really? I think it's really hard not to see the sonic parallels between Goo and DDN. Great transition record. Then they did the alternative thing for a while. Then A Thousand Leaves, an album that was as bizarre and exciting in the '90s as Bad Moon Rising was in the '80s. Murray Street is every bit as good as their best '80s album, only in a different way. And I actually think Nurse was their second or third worst album ever, though I still think it's great.

Only liking '80s youth is only liking 1/3 of the band's output. I don't really get it, but whatever flats your boat.

I see what you're saying but I share Murmer's apathy about much of SY's post 80s stuff, to the extent that I now only own their records up to DN. I wouldn't say they became a bad band after that, I'm just not that interested in them. I can't quite put my finger on what it is but I feel that they lost something after the 80s; a certain aggression, maybe. That's probably just a consequence of their evolving maturity but I don't see the point in continuing with them simply out of loyalty to their earlier output.

I'm definitely a "loyal fan"... in that I'll always love them no matter what. They're probably my favorite band of all time actually. However, what demonrail said about them maturing is very accurate. They lost that spark they had early on imo... I never said I disliked everything after that, but most of it pales in comparison. I'm certain that Rain on Tin will always be one of my favorite songs of all time... NYC ghosts and flowers is solid but doesn't impress me too much as a whole. And... I know this isn't a very popular opinion but I find A Thousand Leaves quite dull. If anything, majority of it does get by on atmosphere... and is nowhere near the nightmarish masterpiece bad moon rising is! Society is a Hole wipes its ass with every song on ATL combined. I've always felt that confusion and bmr represent the essence of SY. But then there's always sister and DDN... after that, they didn't lose my interest or anything. They're a great example of what I think most bands should be like... unpredictable, challenging, forward thinking. They had their moments, but I still can't see how it even comes close for some... to their 80s output.

I totally get what you guys are saying. They changed quite dramatically in the '90s. The change may not have been altogether pleasant for fans of the spacey, unsettling, unhinged sound of their early stuff. I myself have even thought, at times, that '90s SY *just isn't SY*. It's a completely different beast.

To make sense of all of these changes, I started thinking about SY differently. I started thinking of them based on the standards of classic "pop". I started equating them, in my head, to bands like the Beatles. I know they're absolutely nothing alike, but if you view their '90s output as just once facet of the whole, then it just makes them seem all the more dynamic and eclectic. Even the Beatles had "shitty" records ("shitty" for the Beatles still being far better than average) like Magical Mystery Tour, where they just got lost for a bit in the sensation they'd created. Imagine Dirty as SY's MMT.

Then '00s SY is another matter altogether. They became something different all over again. So we've got the post-hardcore art-noise SY, the alterna-grunge SY, and the "godfathers of indie" SY who just jammed and had fun like the grateful dead.

Having all of these archetypes in one is like having the leather-coat, Liverpool pub Beatles, the perfect-pop band Beatles, the psychedelic Beatles, and the frustrated, angsty,"grown-up" Beatles shown on the White Album and Let it Be and Abbey road. I know comparing the two is a stretch, but SY is so BIG for me that I can literally think of them as three (maybe four if you count the SYR SY) bands in one, and that is an exciting thought! It helps me appreciate even their worst moments. Besides, like I said, Goo is a perfect transition from DDN into more mainstream alternative.

Personally I think "Sister" is their best album, and I'm definitely more inclined to think of their'80s output when considering my favorite albums ever. But there is gold all over their catalog. I honestly, when I think hard about it, can't tell you which SY is my favorite! The '80s, obviously the best track record. But the '90s yielded ATL, which is one of my favorite albums ever made, and the '00s had Murray Street and SN and RR and tons of incredible SYR material. So I don't even know which "version" of the band I like best, but that's ok with me.