The Explain Why You Like This Album ('cause i don't understand) Thread (albums, pink floyd)

[Brad Stengel]

Originally Posted by skips

Okay, so it's the first thing that comes to mind when I saw the thread, can someone explain to me:

Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

I've listened to it so many times (they even shot to number 4 on my last.fm charts) but I still find it grating. I can enjoy Sister a bit, but Daydream Nation just leaves me cold.

Daydream Nation is more ambient than Sister, but what makes it better for me, is that the hooks placed in-between the noise are some of their best. 'Teenage Riot' is 'Baba O'Reilly' for the alternative generation, 'Total Trash' is one of the best riffs on the album, and for me, nothing is better than listening to it devolve over the course of seven minutes.

'Daydream Nation' is a riffy album, there are riffs I'd never noticed until over a year since I'd heard it, and from there they helped me appreciate it more. Take the riff during the breakdown on 'Hey Joni', it's fantastic, but I didn't notice it when I first picked it up.

You have to be in the right mood for Sonic Youth. What I find helps is putting albums on repeat when I go to bed, and when I wake up theres usually either some great part I never noticed stuck in my head, or this odd subconscious urge to listen to it more. I do this when I don't 'get' albums, and it works pretty well, usually on the more ambient stuff that I don't have the attention span to listen to straight through. Hope that helps.