Nevertheless, noise rock was key in influencing later musical genres; most broadly, alternative rock, and more specifically, grunge and indie. Nirvana owes much of their influence to Sonic Youth. In fact, Nirvana’s late lead singer Kurt Cobain cited much of his influence had come from Sonic Youth, as well as other late 1980s acts such as the Pixies. As such, Nirvana can be compared to Sonic Youth, and fans of Nirvana as well as other alternative acts may find much to like about Sonic Youth Daydream Nation.
Moore and his bassist girlfriend and now wife Kim Gordon, along with guitarist Lee Ranaldo, started Sonic Youth in 1981. After going through several drummers, the band enlisted Steve Shelley after the recording of Bad Moon Rising in 1985.
The New York noise scene gained steam in the early 1980s, and saw the release of Sonic Youth’s first two studio albums, Sonic Youth (1982) and Confusion is Sex (1983). I find it interesting that Sonic Youth were more experimental earlier in their career than later, when most other bands take the opposite route. The music in their early years rarely contained hooks or melodies and was, almost literally, pure noise. It was only in 1985 with their release of Bad Moon Rising that melodies became more prominent.
1986 and 1987 saw, respectively, the release of EVOL and Sister, also albums I adore. Through them, Sonic Youth continued to evolve by featuring more melodies and hooks than their previous work. Each was influential in its own right. And finally, 1988 saw the release of Daydream Nation, which I consider to be the perfect blending of Sonic Youth’s experimental past with their relatively more mainstream future.
Because Daydream Nation is a double album, there are plenty of songs, most of them longer than the average four minutes one hears on the radio. However, with a double album, there is doubly the danger of having too much filler. Fortunately, Daydream Nation does not have too much, and as far as filler goes, “Providence,” “Rain King,” and “Kissability” are not bad, though they are tracks I often tend to skip.
Article comments