Daydream Nation

There are moments on Daydream Nation when the record’s aggregate narratives, boggling sound composites, and distributed energies reach a level of intensity so pitched the whole thing seems to hover on the brink of self-implosion. These moments, when the record is played at appropriately upsetting volumes, have physical corollaries that often involve shooting waves of alarm up the spine, flushes of energy through the lobes and sternum, lockjaw, palpitations, and visual disorientation. If the act of listening to music requires some degree of participatory commitment from the listener, then this record asks for one hell of a commitment.

A landmark album for alternative rock, Daydream Nation was the pinnacle of what Sonic Youth had been working towards during their first decade together. Ambitious, sprawling. and often astoundingly noisy, it’s a serious record that somehow never takes itself too seriously. Here, Matthew Stearns traces how Sonic Youth reached this point and – with the help of the band – guides us through the album in a way that’s at once informed, inspired, and flat-out awestruck.