[pantophobia]

been sitting on this question for months, but based on either Kim, Thurston and Lee's output how do you rank each album

Thurston:
1. Sister
2. Daydream Nation
3. Dirty
4. Murray Street
5. Confusion is Sex with Kill Yr Idols
6. Washing Machine
7. EVOL
8. Goo
9. Sonic Nurse
10. A Thousand Leaves
11. Bad Moon Rising
12. Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star
13. Rather Ripped
14. Sonic Youth
15. NYC Ghosts & Flowers

Kim:
1. Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star
2. Dirty
3. A Thousand Leaves
4. Confusion is Sex with Kill Yr Idols
5. Rather Ripped
6. Daydream Nation
7. Washing Machine
8. Goo
9. Sonic Nurse
10. Bad Moon Rising
11. EVOL
12. Sister
13. NYC Ghosts & Flowers
14. Murray Street
15. Sonic Youth

it's harder to do an acurate one of Lee when it comes down to it, i mean you go with DDN with 3 songs, ATL and WM with 2 songs then you are ranking basically his single songs after that

it shows how very different you can see each album when only looking only say Kim's songs, and how differently i see albums like Rather Ripped and Experiemental Jet Set

[ZEROpumpkins]

Sister for Thurston and Daydream for Kim.

CBF for a whole list, innit.

[jennthebenn]

Thurston:
1. Sister
2. Daydream Nation
3. Dirty
4. Goo
5. Confusion is Sex
6. A Thousand Leaves
7. EVOL
8. Murray Street
9. Sonic Nurse
10. Washing Machine
11. Bad Moon Rising
12. Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star
13. Sonic Youth
14. Rather Ripped
15. NYC Ghosts & Flowers

Kim:
1. A Thousand Leaves
2. Dirty
3. EJSTNS
4. Rather Ripped
5. Washing Machine
6. Daydream Nation
7. Confusion is Sex
8. EVOL
9. Sonic Nurse
10. Goo
11. Sister
12. Bad Moon Rising
13. NYC Ghosts & Flowers
14. Murray Street
15. Sonic Youth

[noisereductions]

MURRAY ST is a Thurston album. I'll tell ya that much.

[mil_pl]

thurston
1. murray st
2. dirty
3. sonic nurse
4. rather ripped
5. a thousand leaves
6. evol
7. sister

kim
1. ejst&ns
2. a thousand leaves
3. sonic nurse
4. evol
5. goo
6. nyc g+f

[samuel]

Thurston:
1. A Thousand Leaves
2. EVOL
3. Sister and NYC Ghosts & Flowers tie

Kim:
1. Confusion Is Sex/Kill Yr. Idols
2. Sonic Nurse
3. Goo

[acousticrock87]

I think because of Sympathy for the Strawberry, Murray Street should be way up there for Kim. By far my favorite of her songs. But Plastic Sun isn't that good.

[Cantankerous]

sonic nurse has very strong songs from lee, kim and thurston.

[mil_pl]

but from lee only one track

[Derek]

I'm surprised that many of you think of the Youth's albums in terms of who sings what songs.

I'm not really bothered if Lee doesn't sing too much or too often or what, I just like the band as a whole, regardless of who's singing.

[pantophobia]

Originally Posted by Derek

I'm surprised that many of you think of the Youth's albums in terms of who sings what songs.

it doesn't have anything to do with thinking in that way, as so much that everything else has been asked or thought that it's a new thing to think about

[Derek]

Yeah I suppose, don't really see the point though considering every member shines on every album (apart from Experimental Jetset)

[pantophobia]

it makes one think about when they hit it and don't, Thurston was at his best in the late 80s while Kim hit her streak in the 90s IMO

well thats where i think Kim hit her zenith with Bull in the Heather in terms of singles while her album tracks a Skink, Doctor's Orders and Sweet Shine are among her best

[Death & the Maiden]

Thurston:
1. Sister
2. DDN
3. EVOL/ Bad Moon Rising

Kim:
1. DDN

[SYRFox]

Thurston:

TV Shit

Kim:

TV Shit

Lee:

TV Shit

Yamatsuka Eye:

TV Shit

[mil_pl]

funny

[Danny Himself]

Originally Posted by pantophobia

it makes one think about when they hit it and don't, Thurston was at his best in the late 80s while Kim hit her streak in the 90s IMO

well thats where i think Kim hit her zenith with Bull in the Heather in terms of singles while her album tracks a Skink, Doctor's Orders and Sweet Shine are among her best

Yeah I'm with you on that. Sweet Shine should've been a hit!

[Dead-Air]

Originally Posted by Derek

I'm surprised that many of you think of the Youth's albums in terms of who sings what songs.

I'm not really bothered if Lee doesn't sing too much or too often or what, I just like the band as a whole, regardless of who's singing.

I agree completely. The band creates this illusion that the vocalist on a given track is "in charge" of that song, but if you really know about the band that's not at all how it works. They usually write their songs together rather than one person showing up to practice with a song ready to go, which is why so many songs have begun as instrumentals.

Sometimes the person who writes the lyrics doesn't even end up singing it - I highly suspect Thurston wrote the words to "Starpower", which I 've suspected since seeing them in 1986, when he sang it. Because he does the lead vocal on "Or" I had this image in my head of him playing the acoustic guitar on it, until I saw them do it live, and Lee was actually playing the acoustic part.

The whole thing about whether it's a "Thurston" song or a "Lee" song or a "Kim" song is just not what Sonic Youth are about really. That might work for Sebadoh or the Grateful Dead, but Sonic Youth is a highly cooperative non-competative unit!

[pantophobia]

i think there is a little too much thought going into "is this a valid question to ask?"

sort of why i sat on posting the thread in the first place for nearly 6 months

sometimes a question is just that, not an opinion about the question itself

[gualbert]

I think Thurston's voice fit well in the early years , when the music was raw , and now that it is more pop , Kim's voice fits better.