Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation (Deluxe Edition)

"100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s" (Rolling Stone, 1989)
"100 Alternative Albums" (Spin, 1995)
"Top 99 Albums of `85 to `95" (Alternative Press, 1995)
"The Essential 200 Rock Records" (Rolling Stone, 1997)
"Top 100 Albums of All Time" (New Musical Express, 2003) Album Description

Spend many daydreaming days in this Daydream Nation.

Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo are the greatest dual lead guitarists since Television's Verlaine and Lloyd (Apologies to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.). Kim Gordon and especially Steve Shelley's work on this masterpiece of the second worst decade of rock are great as well. Every song on here is, at the very least, good, and most are fantastic. Even "Providence" has the beautiful piano part.

"Teen Age Riot," "Silver Rocket," "Eric's Trip," "Hey Joni," "Candle," that's all that needs to be said. Buy this freaking album. Sonic Youth are, without a doubt, the best band of the late 80's/early 90's. Daydream Nation is by far their best work, and this reissue gives you the best quality possible for an underground treasure. Buy it, play it, love it. November 9, 2008

A great album but ... the songs are better on the album

This should be 3.5 stars, but that's not an option.

Daydream Nation is a great album and the deluxe edition was an interesting concept:

Package a live CD of SY playing each song on the album live with the original album.

For SY fanatics I'm sure this is fascinating, but for the more casual listener, most of the Album tracks are preferable. (SY strikes me as the kind of band that was probably always better in the studio than live) I will grant that I like Kim Gordon's live vocals on "Cross the Breaze" better, though I prefer the album versions guitars. And "Kissability" and "Eric's Trip" sound a little bit more "rockin'" live ... at the expense of being performed as cleanly.

The real treat on the bonus CD are the four covers:

George Harrison's "Within you, without you"
Mudhoney's "Touch me, I'm sick"
Neil Young's "Computer Age"
Captain Beefheart's "Electricity" (And what band BESIDES Sonic Youth and would cover Captain Beefheart?)

If you're just getting into Sonic Youth, I'd just buy the (now quite in-expensive) non-deluxe version and the download the four covers. If you already own Daydream Nation and aren't an absolute Sonic Youth fanatic, I'd recommend just downloading the covers. January 30, 2008

The Borderland

Lets swim deeper: What makes Sonic Youth so important in the history of "pop music" in the late 20th. century is that along with other NY artists such as Glenn Branca, they saw the transcendent potential of the electric guitar beyond the typical trappings of "rock and roll". The "No Wave" movement was on-board with notion as well. Is the electric guitar a classical instrument at this point in time- I think so. And the Youth's give you a first taste of this borderland on tracks like "The Trilogy". Hyperstation, is a brilliant roadmap of harmonic tightrope walking they did at this time...and with a few other tracks,they follow Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane/Starship into William Gibson CyberPunk references. Then very "now".
I only wish the original recording was not so muddy- even with the digital tools of today, why is it still so "harsh"- when it could be more "lush". Everyone who is interested in post-modern sound should own this release. December 21, 2007

EPIC RECORD

An expanded version of this CD is classic. Many 90s bands cite this CD as a major influence and a favorite. It is brilliant from beginning to end. November 10, 2007

Extraordinary.

When daydream nation came out it was a revolution...sort of. Indeed, SonicYouth had been on the radar of anyone interested in alternative music for a few years. Indeed, while all their early records had moments of greatness, sonically it did not allways gel. The sound was allways murky and the songs somewhat sloppily structured. Here, they manage to come over completely focused in a way that remains refreshing. While some of their previous work has strangely improved over time (quite rare) this remains their definitive recors. It is the one that has the most traditional song structures while till being recognizable as classic Sonic Youth. While more melodic than previously the dissonant guitar sounds are still present. All this makes Daydream Nation such a special work. Overall it has not aged. Also to some degree it is the one record that does also not completely sound as any other SY record since it has a more traditional approach at the same time. Indeed one personal criticism against SY is that , especially recently, all thier records sound the same in some way: this is not the case here. Here you get the original record as well as a second CD with live recordings. While these deluxe editins are sometimes a bore, this is an exceptional package. Apparently there is also a beautiful vinyl version of it available. July 28, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...