Daydream Nation

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For the film, see Daydream Nation (film).
Daydream Nation
Studio album by Sonic Youth
Released October 1988
Recorded July 1988 – August 1988 at Greene St. Recording, New York City
Genre Alternative rock, noise rock
Length 70:47
Label Enigma
Producer Nick Sansano, Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth chronology
Master=Dik
(1987)		 Daydream Nation
(1988)		 Goo
(1990)
Singles from Daydream Nation
  1. "Teen Age Riot"
    Released: 1988

Daydream Nation is the fifth studio album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth. It was recorded between July and August 1988 at Greene St. Recording, New York City, and released in October 1988, through Enigma Records.

Their first official double album, and their last before signing to a major label,[1]Daydream Nation was a critical success that earned Sonic Youth substantial acclaim and a major label deal. The album topped the year-end album lists of the NME, CMJ, and Melody Maker, and was placed second on the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll. Several promotional singles were released from the album, the first being "Teen Age Riot",[2] which charted on Billboard's newly created Modern Rock Tracks chart at number 20.[3]

The album is widely considered to be the band's best work,[4][5] and an influence on the alternative and indie rock genres. It was chosen by the Library of Congress to be preserved in the National Recording Registry in 2005.[6]

Contents

Recording [edit]

Sonic Youth recorded Daydream Nation at New York's Greene Street basement studio. The studio's engineer, Nick Sansano, was accustomed to working with hip hop artists. Sansano did not know much about Sonic Youth, but he was aware the band had an aggressive sound, so he showed the band members his work on Public Enemy's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" and Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock's "It Takes Two". The group embraced the sound of the records.[7] Sonic Youth booked three weeks of recording time at Greene Street's Studio A starting in mid-July 1988. At $1000 a day, it was the most the band had paid to record an album up to that point, but it was close to where members Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo lived.[8]

Due to the amount of preparation the band put into composing its music, the recording process was largely efficient.[9] The session became rushed near the end, as Paul Smith, head of the band's British label Blast First, had set a mastering date of August 18. As a result of the time pressure, Gordon was not happy with some of her resulting vocal takes. The band spent a whole night creating a final mix for the three-song "Trilogy" so it could be mastered the following morning. The record ultimately cost $30,000, which led Moore to refer to the album as "our first non-econo record".[10]

"Providence" consisted 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.[11]

Sonic Youth's standard songwriting method involved Moore bringing in melody ideas and chord changes, which the band would spend several months fashioning into full-length songs. Instead of paring the songs down as the group usually did, the months-long writing process for Daydream Nation resulted in long jams, some of a half hour. Several friends of the band, including Henry Rollins, had long praised the band's long live improvisations and told the group that its records never captured them. With Moore on a writing spree, the album ultimately had to be expanded to a double album.[12] 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.[13]

Composition [edit]

"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.[14] "Cross the Breeze" features some of Kim Gordon'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.[15]

"Hey Joni" is titled as a tribute to rock standard "Hey Joe" and to Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell.[16] 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". This song also alludes to the works of William Gibson with the line "In this broken town, can you still jack in/And know what to do?" These feature similarly on Lee's two other songs on the album, the rarely-played "Rain King" — a 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",[17] and the closing track "Eliminator Jr." (inspired by the "Preppie Killer" Robert Chambers) was thus titled 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.[18]

Packaging [edit]

The album cover features the 1983 Gerhard Richter painting Kerze ("Candle").[2] The back cover art is a similar Richter painting from 1982.[19]

The LP's four sides and the CD disc contain four symbols representing the four members of the band.[2] The symbols are infinity, female, upper case omega and a drawing of a demon/angel holding drumsticks.

Reception [edit]

Daydream Nation was released in October 1988 on compact disc, cassette and double vinyl.[20] The album did not chart in the United States, but reached number 99 on the UK Album Charts.[21] There were three singles released from the album, all of which had videos clips: "Teen Age Riot" (released 1988 in 12" vinyl and on CD),[22] "Providence" (released in the UK in 1989),[23] "Candle" (12" released October 1989),[24] and a live version of "Silver Rocket" for subscribers to Forced Exposure.[25][2] The single "Teen Age Riot" charted on Billboard's newly created Modern Rock Tracks chart at number 20.[3]

Robert Palmer in a January 1989 review for Rolling Stone felt that the album demonstrated "the broad harmonic palette, sharply honed songwriting skills and sheer exhilarating drive" of the "influential quartet", and that it "presents the definitive American guitar band of the Eighties at the height of its powers and prescience". [26] The magazine would later place the album in third place in its 1988 critics poll,[27] calling it the "sound of the New Rock Nation rising".[28] Billboard felt it was "the supreme fulfillment" of the band's "fullbore technique",[28] and Robert Christgau felt their "discordant never-let-up is a philosophical triumph", awarding the album an A grade,[29] and placing it second in his 1988 Pazz & Jop Poll -[30] a listing that made the band realize the album had made an impact.[31] The UK music press also embraced the album: Record Mirror enthusing that Sonic Youth were "the best band in the universe"; the NME calling Daydream Nation the "most radical and political album of the year"; and Q magazine saying it made an "enthralling noise".[28]

Legacy [edit]

Professional ratings
Retrospective reviews
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 5/5 stars[5]
Blender 5/5 stars[32]
Pitchfork 10/10[33]
PopMatters 10/10[34]
Robert Christgau A[35]

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 number 1 on Pitchfork Media's list of the one-hundred greatest albums of the 1980s,[4] number 13 on Spin magazine's list of the one-hundred greatest albums from 1985–2010,[36] and number 45 on the Rolling Stone list of the one-hundred greatest albums of the 1980s.[37] In 2003, the album was ranked number 328 on Rolling Stone's list of the five-hundred greatest albums ever.[38] It was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry in 2006.[6]

Publication Country Accolade Year Rank
Alternative Press U. S. Top 99 Albums of 1985 to 1995 1995 No. 51[39]
Spin U. S. 100 Alternative Albums 1995 No. 9[40]
Guitarist UK 101 Essential Guitar Albums 2000 No. 11[41]
Pitchfork Media U. S. Top 100 Albums of the 1980s 2002 No. 1[4]
Rolling Stone U. S. The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 2003 No. 329[38]
Blender U. S. 500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die 2003 (no ranking)
Q U. K. The 80 Best Records of the 80s 2006 No. 30
Slant Magazine US Best Albums of the 1980s 2012 No. 30[42]

Tour [edit]

The band promoted the album with a North American tour from October to December 1988, concentrating almost exclusively on material from the album. In 1989, they took the tour to New Zealand, Australia, Japan, the USSR and Europe, finishing the year with their first network television appearance—on the syndicated Night Music—playing "Silver Rocket".[2] In 2007 they played the album live as part of the Don't Look Back concert series, and then toured with it through Europe and Australia into 2008.[2][31]

Track listing [edit]

All songs written and composed by Sonic Youth (Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley). 

Side one
No. Title Lyrics Length
1. "Teen Age Riot"   Moore 6:57
2. "Silver Rocket"   Moore 3:47
3. "The Sprawl"   Gordon 7:42
Side two
No. Title Lyrics Length
4. "'Cross the Breeze"   Gordon 7:00
5. "Eric's Trip"   Lee Ranaldo 3:48
6. "Total Trash"   Moore 7:33
Side three
No. Title Lyrics Length
7. "Hey Joni"   Ranaldo 4:23
8. "Providence"     2:41
9. "Candle"   Moore 4:58
10. "Rain King"   Ranaldo 4:39
Side four
No. Title Lyrics Length
11. "Kissability"   Gordon 3:08
12. "Trilogy"
  • A. "The Wonder"
  • B. "Hyperstation"
  • Z. "Eliminator Jr."" (Some releases separate the parts of "Trilogy")
 Moore, Gordon 14:02

Deluxe Edition [edit]

A Deluxe Edition of Daydream Nation was released in 2007. 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.[43]

The four-LP vinyl release of the deluxe edition has a slightly different track listing than the CD release. The first two LPs have the same track listing as the original double-LP release. However, the home demo of "Eric's Trip" is at the end of the fourth LP, rather than falling immediately after the original album.

Personnel [edit]

Sonic Youth
Production

Chart positions [edit]

Chart (1988) Peak
position
UK Albums Chart[44] 99
Chart (2007) Peak
position
Belgian Albums Chart (Vl)[45] 91

Singles [edit]

Year Single Peak chart positions
US Mod
[46]
1988 "Teen Age Riot" 20

References [edit]

  1. ^ "GuitarPlayer: Sonic Youth's 1988 album Daydream Nation". guitarplayer.com. Retrieved October 2, 2012. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f Chris Lawrence. "sonicyouth.com Discography – Album: Daydream Nation". sonicyouth.com. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  3. ^ a b "Sonic Youth – Awards : AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  4. ^ a b c Rob Mitchum (November 20, 2002). "Staff Lists: Top 100 Albums of the 1980s". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 29, 2012.  Text " Features " ignored (help); Text " Pitchfork " ignored (help)
  5. ^ a b Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "Daydream Nation – Sonic Youth : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards : AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  6. ^ a b "The National Recording Registry 2005 : National Recording Preservation Board (Library of Congress)". loc.gov. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  7. ^ Browne 2008, pp. 254–262.
  8. ^ Browne, p. 261.
  9. ^ Browne, p. 265.
  10. ^ Browne, p. 267.
  11. ^ Lawrence, Chris. "Sonic Youth Site Menu". sonicyouth.com. Retrieved October 2, 2012. 
  12. ^ Browne, p. 264.
  13. ^ Lawrence, Chris. "Sonic Youth Site Menu". sonicyouth.com. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  14. ^ Lawrence, Chris. "Sonic Youth Site Menu". sonicyouth.com. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  15. ^ Lawrence, Chris. "Sonic Youth Site Menu". sonicyouth.com. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  16. ^ Lawrence, Chris. "Sonic Youth Site Menu". sonicyouth.com. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  17. ^ Lawrence, Chris. "Sonic Youth Site Menu". sonicyouth.com. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  18. ^ Lawrence, Chris. "Sonic Youth Site Menu". sonicyouth.com. Retrieved October 2, 2012. 
  19. ^ Daydream Nation (CD booklet). 
  20. ^ Strong, Martin Charles (1998). The Great Rock Discography. Giunti. p. 768. ISBN 88-09-21522-2. 
  21. ^ "The Official Charts Company - Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth Search". The Official Charts Company. 6 May 2013. 
  22. ^ Lawrence, Chris. "Sonic Youth Site Menu". sonicyouth.com. Retrieved October 2, 2012. 
  23. ^ Lawrence, Chris. "Sonic Youth Site Menu". sonicyouth.com. Retrieved October 2, 2012. 
  24. ^ Lawrence, Chris. "Sonic Youth Site Menu". sonicyouth.com. Retrieved 2 October 2012. 
  25. ^ Lawrence, Chris. "Sonic Youth Site Menu". sonicyouth.com. Retrieved October 2, 2012. 
  26. ^ Palmer, Robert (January 12, 1989). "Daydream Nation | Album Reviews &#124". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 2, 2012. 
  27. ^ "Rocklist.net...Rolling Stone (USA) End of Year Lists..". rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 2 October 2012. 
  28. ^ a b c Browne 2008, p. 276.
  29. ^ Robert Christgau. ": Album: Sonic Youth: Daydream Nation". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved October 2, 2012. 
  30. ^ Christgau, Robert (February 28, 1989). "Robert Christgau: Pazz & Jop 1988: Critics Poll". Village Voice. Retrieved October 2, 2012.  More than one of |work= and |journal= specified (help)
  31. ^ a b Azerrad, Michael (September, 2007). "The Spin Interview". Spin. Retrieved October 2, 2012. 
  32. ^ Wolk, Douglas. "Daydream Nation". Blender. 
  33. ^ Abebe, Nitsuh (June 13, 2007). "Sonic Youth: Daydream Nation: Deluxe Edition | Album Reviews | Pitchfork". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  34. ^ Begrand, Adrian (June 12, 2007). "Sonic Youth: Daydream Nation < PopMatters". PopMatters. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  35. ^ "Sonic Youth < accessdate=December 15, 2012". 
  36. ^ Battaglia, Andy; Indrisek, Scott (November 30, 2010). "125 Best Albums of the Past 25 Years | spin.com". spin.com. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  37. ^ "100 Best Albums of the Eighties: Sonic Youth, 'Daydream Nation'". rollingstone.com. Retrieved September 29, 2012.  Text " Rolling Stone " ignored (help)
  38. ^ a b "500 Greatest Albums of All Time: Sonic Youth, 'Daydream Nation' | Rolling Stone". rollingstone.com. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  39. ^ "Rocklist.net...Alternative Pres...". rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  40. ^ "Rocklist.net...Spin Magazine (USA) Lists...Page 2..". rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  41. ^ "http://acclaimedmusic.net/Current/guitarist.htm". acclaimedmusic.net. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  42. ^ "Best Albums of the 1980s | Music | Slant Magazine". Slant Magazine. March 5, 2012. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  43. ^ Solarski, Matthew (December 4, 2007). "Pitchfork: Sonic Youth Reveal Deluxe Daydream Nation Details". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on April 16, 2007. Retrieved September 29, 2012. 
  44. ^ "Sonic Youth | Artist". Official Charts Company. British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved January 22, 2013. 
  45. ^ "Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation". Ultratop. Hung Medien. Retrieved January 22, 2013. 
  46. ^ "Daydream Nation – Sonic Youth: Awards". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved January 22, 2013. 
Bibliography

External links [edit]

Sonic Youth
Studio albums
Extended plays
Live albums
Compilations
SYR series
Singles
Video albums
Related articles
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