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Rating: We find ourselves in 1988. But before discussing the album in question, let's take a nice journey back seven years.
It's 1981 when a guy named Glenn Branca launches ''The Ascension'', an experimental album: chamber rock music. Recorded with four guitars at incredibly high volume, a bass, and a drum, and published almost like a thesis: experimentation and analysis of dissonance and microtonality, minimalism, alternative tunings.
Branca manages to create a rock symphony that will lay the groundwork for everything we're about to discuss.
Why this detour? Well, a certain Lee Ranaldo participated in that album, who would later become the guitarist of Sonic Youth.
Before returning to 1988, let's specify that albums like Evol or Sister are nothing but spontaneous forms of what Daydream Nation will be.
So what does Daydream Nation have more than the others? Why is it considered one of the greatest Rock music albums in history? Why the apex of the Sonic Youth?
In those years, the group members experiment, sow, and finally with Daydream Nation, they reap all the fruits of their labor.
There is music to hear, and there is music to listen to. Daydream Nation is an album that must be strictly listened to (preferably with a good pair of headphones or an excellent audio system).
This is because otherwise, it would be impossible to comprehend the album as it was conceived.
Daydream Nation is nothing but the perfectionism of studies started by Branca in 1981 with The Ascension, cleverly turned in a purely Rock manner (it cannot be classified as avant-garde or minimal music; Sonic Youth is effectively a Rock music band).
It's one of those albums that can either be liked or not, but in its realm, it represents a monumental work.
Steve Shelley will establish himself here as a full-fledged virtuoso of his instrument, Gordon will manage to compose some of the most compelling bass lines of her career, but the core of the entire work will once again be conceived by Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore.
Two guitars. Two totally abnormal tunings, yet studied to the smallest details.
For every single note of one guitar, the other contemplates it, exalts it, completes it.
The real strength of Daydream Nation lies in the fact that every sound is studied to the smallest details.
It's an homage to rock n' roll, to blues, to punk (conceptually), but at the same time, it's something completely new, fresh, and noisy.
This is where Sonic Youth matures and perfects themselves as artists: a band that, despite proposing cultured music, has never fallen into intellectualism for its own sake; rather, they have always skillfully reconciled experimentation with classicism, novelty with homage, and have always done so out of their own choice and musical formation. (Among their most famous covers, it's easy to switch from the Beach Boys to Captain Beefheart, just to give you an idea).
The album's highlights are many (Cross The Breeze, Eric's Trip, Hey Jony, and Candle in particular, but really they are all indispensable), each track has its own story, each track represents why Daydream Nation is a monumental work, but to avoid a very boring track-by-track, I will limit myself to spending some lines on what, for me, represents the peak of the New York band's entire career. The practical and reliable summary of what Sonic Youth is, and above all, why Daydream Nation is a masterpiece.
The track in question is the concluding ''Trilogy''. A sort of musical suite composed of three separate compositions, respectively called ''The Wonder''; ''Hyperstation'' and ''Eliminator Jr.''
''The Wonder'' is quite possibly the sickest, most twisted, and thrilling four and a half minutes you can find within the album.
Four and a half minutes of pure Noise-Rock. A track that gets straight to the point: Moore frantically screams, the riff is distorted, dissonant, while the other guitar plays something completely different, yet the result is magical, unique.
Sudden tempo changes, two guitars that blend perfectly. Then, almost an apparently improvised Jam, a pounding drum. Rock at maximum power.
The chaos is now skillfully harmonized by mature musicians, at the peak of their capabilities, and as I will always say, virtuosos of sound rather than technique.
A track never repeated within the New York band's discography.
''Hyperstation'' and ''Eliminator Jr'' complete the rite admirably.
It is something Sonic Youth had never achieved before, not so well, not in this manner.
With the new sound, a gigantic wall of sound is created, but each of the four instruments is perfectly audible individually.
Four different paths, generated by each of the four members. A single, impeccable result.
A work of art that can be liked or not, an album that can be considered the band's best or not, but which in fact
represents the stylistically most successful work of the group, and one of the musical peaks of the last century.
The cover was taken from a painting made in 1983 by Gherard Richter, a renowned German painter.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Teen Age Riot (06:56)
You're it.
No, you're it.
Yeah, you're really it.
You're it.
No, I mean it, you're it.
Say it, don't spray it.
Spirit desire, face me.
Spirit desire, don't displace me.
Spirit desire, we will fall.
Miss me, don't dismiss me.
Spirit desire, spirit desire.
Spirit desire, we will fall.
Spirit desire, we will fall.
Spirit desire, spirit desire.
Spirit desire, we will fall.
Spirit desire, we will fall.
Everybody's talking 'bout the stormy weather,
And what's a man to do but work out whether it's true?
Looking for a man with a focus and a temper,
Who can open up a map and see between one and two.
Time to get it before you let it get to you.
Here he comes now -- stick to your guns and let him through.
Everybody's coming from the winter vacation,
Taking in the sun in a exaltation to you.
You come running in on platform shoes,
With Marshall stacks to at least just give us a clue.
Ah, here it comes, I know it's someone I knew.
Teenage riot in a public station,
Gonna fight and tear it up in a hypernation for you.
Now I see it,
I think I'll leave it out of the way.
Now I come near you,
And it's not clear why you fade away.
Looking for a ride to your secret location,
Where the kids are setting up a free-speed nation for you.
Got a foghorn and a drum and a hammer that's rocking,
And a cord and a pedal and a lock, that'll do me for now.
It better work out,
I hope it works out my way.
'Cause it's getting kind of quiet in my city's head,
Takes a teen age riot to get me out of bed right now.
You better look it, we're gonna shake it up to him.
He acts the hero, we paint a zero on his hand
We know it's down,
We know it's bound too loose.
Everybody's sound is round it,
Everybody wants to be proud to choose.
So who's to take the blame for the stormy weather,
You're never gonna stop all the teenage leather and booze.
It's time to go round, a one man showdown -- teach us how to fail.
We're off the streets now, and back on the road on the riot trail.
02 Silver Rocket (03:46)
Snake in it
jack into the wall
TV amp on fire
blowin' in the hall
gun yr. sled
close yr. peeping toms
turbo organizer
crankin' on the knob
You got it
yeh ride the silver rocket
can't stop it
burnin hole in yr pocket
hit the power
psycho helmets on
you got to splice yr. halo
take it to a moon
nymphoid clamor
fuelling up the hammer
you got to fake out the robot
and pulse up the zoom
You got it
yeh ride the silver rocket
can't stop it
burnin hole in yr pocket
can't forget the flashing
can't forget the smashing
the sending and the bending
the ampisphere re-entry
You gotta have the time
Got a letter in your mind
Gotta heart injection
That you got yourself a line
You got it
yeh ride the silver rocket
can't stop it
burnin hole in yr pocket
03 The Sprawl (07:39)
To the extent that I wear skirts
and cheap nylon slips
I've gone native
I wanted to know the exact dimension of hell
does this sound simple?
Fuck you! Are you for sale?
Does 'Fuck you' sound simple enough?
This was the only part that turned me on
but he was candy all over
come on down to the store
you can buy some more, and more, and more, and more
you can buy some more, and more, and more, and more
you can buy some more, and more, and more, and more
you can buy some more, and more, and more, and more
I grew up in a shotgun row
sliding down the hill
out front were the big machines
steel and rusty now I guess
outback was the river
and that big sign down the road
that's where it all started
come on down to the store
you can buy some more, and more, and more, and more
come on down to the store
you can buy some more, and more, and more, and more
come on down to the store
you can buy some more, and more, and more, and more
you can buy some more, more, more, more
06 Total Trash (07:30)
It start at the top
Now it's spiralling down
Works best when it's lost
Diggin' under the ground
Never mind it now
We can bring it back
It's total trash
And it's a natural fact
That I'm not no cow
It's never the same
It's more than a game
Can't take it away
Can't kill all the shame
It's a guilty man
That increased the crack
It's total trash
Sack 'em on the back
With a heavy rock
There he goes again
Magic monkey friend
Can I love the time
That he seems to spend
With all the kids in town
It start at the top
Now it's spiralling down
Works best when it's lost
Diggin' under the ground
Never mind it now
We can bring it back
It's total trash
And it's a natural fact
That I'm not no cow
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Other reviews
By rob
Sonic Youth are an unusual exception. They give rise to the flames.
That candle indeed sets the listener’s mind aflame. And it never disappoints, not even for a moment.
By ZiOn
"Daydream Nation is a masterpiece. Without a doubt."
"A timeless jewel that everyone should own or at least know, given that, if noise and indie rock can be discussed today, it is undoubtedly thanks to these gentlemen from New York."
By markocc
Sometimes noise is the best music a man can listen to.
Daydream Nation is a crazy and terrifying scream, something that makes you uneasy but at the same time is wonderful, it’s like a drug.
By maryg
Every word spoken about "Daydream Nation" is certainly not wasted, as this album will never cease to amaze the audience, not even after a billion listens.
The historical significance of "Daydream Nation" is immeasurable: just considering the substantial number of bands that have drawn inspiration from it for their own sound.
By gianmarcolodi
"'Teenage Riot' for me was a way of being, a warning, I wasn’t and wouldn’t accept staying quiet or having a normal relationship."
"'Trilogy' which for me was honey, ambrosia that someone poured directly into my ears because then the next morning someone would come to talk to me about the storm."
