Daydream Nation

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Daydream Nation
Daydream Nation cover
Studio album by Sonic Youth
Released October 1988
Recorded July 1988 – August 1988 at Greene Street Recording, New York City
Genre Alternative rock, post-punk
Length 70:47
Label Enigma (U.S.)
Blast First (UK)
DGC Records (1993 CD and later re-issues)
Producer Nick Sansano, Sonic Youth
Professional reviews

Original release:

Deluxe edition:
Sonic Youth chronology
Sister
(1987)		 Daydream Nation
(1988)		 Goo
(1990)

Daydream Nation is the sixth studio album by the American alternative rock band Sonic Youth. It was released in October 1988 by Enigma in the United States, and by Blast First in the United Kingdom. It was a success, and a number of publications, including Rolling Stone, Spin Magazine, and Pitchfork Media have hailed it as one of the best albums of the 1980s.[1][2][3] As a result, it is regarded as a milestone of 1980s underground music.[4]

Although arguably the two albums immediately before it, Evol and Sister mark Sonic Youth's first attempts at shifting from their roots in unsettling noise-rock to a somewhat more accessible combination of avant guitar experimentation and traditional rock, for many listeners, Daydream Nation is the apex where this change fully took hold. The album cover itself invokes this transition, with the 1983 Gerhard Richter photorealist painting Kerze ("Candle").[5] The back cover art is a similar Richter painting, painted in 1982.[6]

Nevertheless, initial sales were poor, partly because Enigma Records, Sonic Youth's American record label, went out of business not long after the record's release. After a period of being out of print, Daydream Nation was reissued by DGC in 1993, which had signed the band largely on the strength of the crossover critical acclaim reaped by the album. One single, "Teen Age Riot", subsequently charted on the Billboard Music Charts in the US, and it peaked at #20 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.[7]

In 2007, Sonic Youth undertook a series of performances of the album in its entirety.[8]

On June 12, 2007, a two-CD deluxe edition of the album was released. It contains live versions of every track on the album, plus studio recordings of some cover songs. A 4-LP vinyl version was released on July 17, 2007.[9]

Contents

[edit] Album style

On Daydream Nation, Sonic Youth perfected their style, becoming sculptors of interweaving guitar lines that could unfold with nearly symphonic grandeur. The album quickly became an indie rock standard, containing some of the band's best-known songs, such as "Teen Age Riot", "Silver Rocket", and "Candle."

"The Sprawl" was inspired by the works of science fiction writer William Gibson, who used the term to refer to a future mega-city stretching from Boston to Atlanta. The lyrics for the first verse were lifted from the novel The Stars at Noon, by Denis Johnson.[10] "'Cross the Breeze" features some of Kim's most intense singing, with such lyrics as, "Let's go walking on the water/ Now you think I'm Satan's daughter/ I wanna know, should I stay or go?/ I took a look into your hate/ It made me feel very up to date." "Eric's Trip" has lyrics pertaining to Eric Emerson's LSD-fueled monologue in the Andy Warhol movie Chelsea Girls.[11]

"Hey Joni" is titled as a tribute to Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe" and to Joni Mitchell.[12] It is sung by Lee Ranaldo, and has surrealist lyrics such as, "Shots ring out from the center of an empty field/ Joni's in the tall grass/ She's a beautiful mental jukebox, a sailboat explosion/ A snap of electric whipcrack." These feature similarly on Lee's two other songs on the album, the rarely-played "Rain King" - a thundering homage to Pere Ubu and perhaps Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King - and the aforementioned "Eric's Trip".

The album's title comes from a lyric in "Hyperstation."[13] Provocatively-sleazy closing track "Eliminator Jr." was titled thusly because the band felt it sounded like a cross between Dinosaur Jr and Eliminator-era ZZ Top. It was given part "z" in the "Trilogy" both as a reference to ZZ Top and because it is the closing piece on the disc.[14]

 Music sample:

"Teen Age Riot"

"Teen Age Riot" by Sonic Youth.
Problems listening to the file? See media help.

The album was nearly titled Tonight's the Day, from a lyric in "Candle." This was also meant as a reference to Neil Young's LP Tonight's the Night.[15]

Distancing itself from most of the album's rock sensibilities is the musique concrete piece "Providence", which displays some of the band's more experimental tendencies. The song consists of a piano solo by Thurston Moore recorded at his mother's house using a Walkman, the sound of an amp overheating and a pair of telephone messages left by Mike Watt, calling for Moore from a Providence, Rhode Island payphone, dubbed over one another. Oddly, it was released as a single, and a single-shot music video was even filmed for it.[16]

Videos were also shot for "Teen Age Riot", "Silver Rocket" and "Candle".

[edit] Acclaim

In the years following its release, Daydream Nation has risen in stature to become one of the most highly-regarded albums of the 1980s, receiving much critical acclaim and appearing on many "Best-of" lists. It was ranked #1 in Pitchfork's top 100 albums of the 1980s,[3] 14 in Spin's "100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005".[2] In 1989, it was ranked #45 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the The 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s.[1] In 2003, the album was ranked number 329 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[17] In 2006, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.[18] In 2006, the album ranked as the highest rated alternative album of 1988 on Sputnikmusic.[19]

[edit] Accolades

Since its release, Daydream Nation has featured heavily in various "must have" lists compiled by the music media. Some of the more prominent of these lists to feature Daydream Nation are shown below; this information is adapted from Acclaimedmusic.net.[20]

Publication Country Accolade Year Rank
Guitarist UK 101 Essential Guitar Albums[21] 2000 #11
Alternative Press U.S. Top 99 Albums of 1985 to 1995[22] 1995 #51
Blender U.S. 500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die[23] 2003 *
Q UK The 80 Best Records of the 80s[24] 2006 #30
Spin U.S. 100 Alternative Albums[25] 1995 #9
Pitchfork Media U.S. Top 100 Favorite Records of the 1980s[3] 2002 #1
Rolling Stone U.S. The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time[17] 2003 #329

( * ) designates lists which are unordered.

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Original release

All songs were written by Sonic Youth.

  1. "Teen Age Riot" – 6:57 (lyrics/vocals Moore, Gordon intro vocals)
  2. "Silver Rocket" – 3:47 (lyrics/vocals Moore)
  3. "The Sprawl" – 7:42 (lyrics/vocals Gordon)
  4. "'Cross the Breeze" – 7:00 (lyrics/vocals Gordon)
  5. "Eric's Trip" – 3:48 (lyrics/vocals Ranaldo)
  6. "Total Trash" – 7:33 (lyrics/vocals Moore)
  7. "Hey Joni" – 4:23 (lyrics/vocals Ranaldo)
  8. "Providence" – 2:41 (vocals Mike Watt)
  9. "Candle" – 4:58 (lyrics/vocals Moore)
  10. "Rain King" – 4:39 (lyrics/vocals Ranaldo)
  11. "Kissability" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 3:08
  12. Trilogy: – 14:02†
    • a) "The Wonder" – 4:15 (lyrics/vocals Moore)
    • b) "Hyperstation" – 7:13 (lyrics/vocals Moore)
    • z) "Eliminator Jr." – 2:37 (lyrics/vocals Gordon)

†Some releases separate the parts of "Trilogy".

Vinyl etchings (Enigma release)

  • Side 1: "Rock and Roll for president"
  • Side 2: "Star strangled Bangles"
  • Side 3: "Destroy all record labels, part 2 - high, end"
  • Side 4: "No sleep till Rhino"

The original CD release featured four symbols on the disc, probably inspired by or in imitation of the symbols on Led Zeppelin IV[citation needed].

Liner notes in the 1993 reissue were penned by Jutta Koether.

[edit] Deluxe edition

Disc one

The original album plus one bonus track:

  1. "Eric's Trip" (home demo)
Disc two
Live Daydream
  1. "The Sprawl"
  2. "'Cross the Breeze"
  3. "Hey Joni"
  4. "Silver Rocket"
  5. "Kissability"
  6. "Eric's Trip"
  7. "Candle"
  8. "The Wonder"
  9. "Hyperstation"
  10. "Eliminator Jr."
  11. "Providence"
  12. "Teen Age Riot"
  13. "Rain King"
  14. "Totally Trashed"
  15. "Total Trash"
Cover songs
  1. "Within You Without You" (Harrison)
  2. "Touch Me I'm Sick" (Mudhoney)
  3. "Computer Age" (Young)
  4. "Electricity" (Van Vliet/Bermann)

[edit] Personnel

All information is taken from the CD.[6]

[edit] Album charts

Year Album Chart Position
1988 Daydream Nation Official UK Albums Chart 99

[edit] Charting singles

Year Song Chart Position[7]
1988 Teen Age Riot Modern Rock Tracks (US) 20

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b The 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  2. ^ a b Top 100 Albums of the Last 20 Years. Spin. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  3. ^ a b c Top Albums of the 1980s. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  4. ^ Howard, Ed. On Second Thought: Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation. Stylus Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  5. ^ Daydream Nation. SonicYouth.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
  6. ^ a b Daydream Nation booklet and liner notes
  7. ^ a b Sonic Youth charting. Billboard. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
  8. ^ Solarski, Matthew. Sonic Youth Take Daydream to More Nations. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  9. ^ Solarski, Matthew. Sonic Youth Reveal Deluxe Daydream Nation Details. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
  10. ^ Sonic Youth Song Database: The Sprawl. Sonic Youth.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
  11. ^ Sonic Youth Song Database: Eric's Trip. Sonic Youth.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
  12. ^ Sonic Youth Song Database: Hey Joni. Sonic Youth.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
  13. ^ Sonic Youth Song Database: Hyperstation. Sonic Youth.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
  14. ^ Sonic Youth Song Database: Eliminator Jr.. Sonic Youth.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
  15. ^ Sonic Youth Song Database: Candle. Sonic Youth.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
  16. ^ Sonic Youth Song Database: Providence. Sonic Youth.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
  17. ^ a b The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  18. ^ The National Recording Registry 2005. Library of Congress. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  19. ^ Highest Rated Albums: 1988. Sputnikmusic. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  20. ^ List of Daydream Nation Accolades. Acclaimed Music. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  21. ^ 101 Essential Guitar Albums. Guitarist. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  22. ^ Top 99 Albums of 1985 to 1995. Alternative Press. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  23. ^ 500 CDs You Must Own: Alternative Rock at Blender.com. Blender. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  24. ^ The 80 Best Records of the 80s. Q. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  25. ^ 100 Alternative Albums. Spin. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.

[edit] External links

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