Daydream Nation |
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By the time Sonic Youth recorded this album, they were already in their late twenties. They had received frenzied critical acclaim for 'Evol' and as the Blast First propelled invasion of US alternative bands picked up pace SY were out at the front, the cutting edge. Let's not forget that their imminent commercial success directly led to the rise of Nirvana and the subsequent death of 'alternative' music as anything other than a pathetic joke. I kid you not; then we had SY, Big Black, the Butthole Surfers, Dinosaur… that's just the highlights of one label's roster. Somebody sucked the life out of the kids and this time it wasn't that crusty old dean.
SY had never made an album as intense as this before, and I suspect they never will again. From the moment that 'Teenage Riot' cranks out its first cartwheeling riff there's hardly a minute where SY's trademark skewed guitars aren't chasing each other at wristbreaking speed, clashing and weaving an exuberant trail of sparks behind them. Whereas previously their sound was perhaps as intense, it was more subtle. There was a stripped down quality to their earlier albums, a tension that built through the songs. On Daydream Nation they just let it all rush out, playing hard, fast and with tight precision. It's all the more exhilarating for it. The only pause comes halfway through with 'Providence', all static and amplifier noise, with an ansaphone message echoing eerily like the voices of the dead. Indeed things are headed for a rather bizarre ending, culminating as it does with the 'Trilogy'. Shit, you might have thought at the time. What the fuck is this, prog rock? Bastards! However bizarrely titled it may be, it is a superb excuse to stretch their music taut over an entire side, music that is thankfully far removed from the indulgences of the seventies. Comprising three sections this is a musical breakdown in full effect. The band, having dragged their instruments protesting through an album's worth of tunage already, now brutalise them completely, from the noise frenzy of 'The Wonder', into the calm before the storm 'Hyperstation', the storm itself being 'Eliminator Jr', where any last squeals of life are wrung from the guitars amid much grunting from Kim Gordon. A perfect end to a perfect album. 
I've tried hard to avoid picking out song titles in the above. If I was forced to give stand out songs, I'd have to say my personal favourites are 'Teenage Riot', 'Silver Rocket', 'Cross the Breeze'… shit, that's the track listing so far. While infused with a definite style throughout the album, SY have created a situation where one song does not immediately sound wildly different to its predecessor. This leads to Daydream Nation to sound like variations around a common sound, and the casual listener might not glean more to say about the songs than, "The one with Thurston singing", or whatever. In fact I have come across hardcore SY fans who have put this record down as their weakest, a blip in their output they dare not repeat. This is one of the reasons for this retro review being here, because opinions like that are born of complacency, the kind of complacency that has SY putting out tripe like 'Jetset…' and generally pissing in their own pool.
This was SY's last riot before they signed to Geffen and, separately, age made their name something of a joke. Kill yr idols. TL |
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