POLL YR. IDOLS: The official SONIC YOUTH RESULTS thread!

Yeah, that grinding noise halfway in is so great. And it only gets better after that. I'm always surprised to see that 'Karen' is more than 9 minutes long - it flies by!

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/041.jpg
41. Wildflower Soul
A Thousand Leaves, 1998
(176 points, 8 votes)

RECAP:
100. Secret Girl (50 points, 4 votes)
99. Saucer-Like (52 points, 3 votes)
98. Paper Cup Exit (55 points, 4 votes)
97. Computer Age (57 points, 4 votes)
96. The Neutral (58 points, 4 votes)
95. Pattern Recognition (60 points, 5 votes)
94. Little Trouble Girl (60 points, 6 votes)
93. Anagrama (60 points, 8 votes)
92. In the Kingdom #19 (62 points, 3 votes)
91. (TIE) The Wonder (63 points, 3 votes)
91. (TIE) Dude Ranch Nurse (63 points, 3 votes)
89. She's in a Bad Mood (64 points, 6 votes)
88. Reena (64 points, 7 votes)
87. (TIE) Stones (72 points, 6 votes)
87. (TIE) Genetic (72 points, 6 votes)
85. I'm Insane (74 points, 4 votes, 1 #1)
84. NYC Ghosts & Flowers (79 points, 6 votes)
83. Androgynous Mind (80 points, 4 votes)
82. (TIE) Flower (81 points, 6 votes)
82. (TIE) 100% (81 points, 6 votes)
80. Sweet Shine (81 points, 7 votes)
79. Providence (82 points, 4 votes)
78. Rain King (82 points, 6 votes)
77. Ghost Bitch (84 points, 4 votes)
76. Death to Our Friends (85 points, 3 votes)
75. Chapel Hill (87 points, 6 votes)
74. (TIE) Into the Groove(y) (88 points, 5 votes)
74. (TIE) Cinderella's Big Score (88 points, 5 votes)
72. Macbeth (89 points, 6 votes)
71. Jams Run Free (89 points, 7 votes)
70. Free City Rhymes (94 points, 8 votes)
69. Superstar (97 points, 5 votes)
68. Tokyo Eye (100 points, 5 votes)
67. Making the Nature Scene (106 points, 7 votes)
66. Drunken Butterfly (107 points, 7 votes)
65. Kissability (108 points, 7 votes)
64. The World Looks Red (108 points, 8 votes)
63. Protect Me You (110 points, 6 votes)
62. Incinerate (113 points, 10 votes)
61. Unmade Bed (114 points, 10 votes)
60. Society is a Hole (115 points, 7 votes)
59. Eliminator Jr. (119 points, 9 votes)
58. Green Light (120 points, 6 votes)
57. The Burning Spear (124 points, 7 votes)
56. Kool Thing (135 points, 7 votes)
55. Titanium Exposé (136 points, 7 votes, 1 #1)
54. I Love You Golden Blue (138 points, 9 votes)
53. Hoarfrost (139 points, 9 votes)
52. Becuz (143 points, 8 votes)
51. Hits of Sunshine (For Allen Ginsberg) (145 points, 9 votes, 1 #1)
50. Youth Against Fascism (151 points, 9 votes)
49. Kill Yr. Idols (155 points, 12 votes)
48. The Empty Page (157 points, 10 votes)
47. Pipeline / Kill Time (158 points, 10 votes)
46. Halloween (159 points, 10 votes)
45. Washing Machine (169 points, 11 votes, 1 #1)
44. (TIE) Skip Tracer (172 points, 11 votes)
44. (TIE) Beauty Lies in the Eye (172 points, 11 votes)
42. Karen Koltrane (172 points, 12 votes)
41. Wildflower Soul (176 points, 8 votes)

Spotify playlist

I voted for both Karen Koltrane and Wildflower Soul. Honestly expected Wildflower Soul to place higher, it was my #3.

Tell me about it: I had it at 12.

10 of mine placed so far, I definitely rate 'beauty Lies In The Eye".

Sister is gearing up for a strong showing.

Titanium Exposé was my #1, but it's always been kinda clear to me that my SY tastes aren't everybody else's. Anyway, when I first heard that in 1990, it melted my brains. Still does, really.

i think "Washing Machine" is missing from the playlist?

love that song btw, glad it placed as well as it did. i always thought it was funny that it WOULD have been their longest studio track ever, if it hadn't been on album with a song that was over twice as even that.

that sentence came out pretty garbled but you get the idea

'Slaapkamers met slagroom' is over 18 minutes.

and was after Washing Machine! but i kinda meant stuff from proper albums anyway.

really love the last 8 or 9 songs to place, and only voted for a couple ("Halloween" and "Skip Tracer"), great stretch.

"Beauty Lies In The Eye" is amazing! their most fully realized song that runs under 2 1/2 minutes.

Holding out dwindling hope that "Eric's Trip" won't be the highest placing Lee song, fingers crossed for "Mote" & "Hey Joni" after "Skip Tracer" & "Hoarfrost" placed lower than I expected. IT'S 2015!

I probably don't rank Sister quite as highly among their 80s albums as most fans seem to, although "Schizophrenia" was my #1. I don't think that either "Beauty Lies..." nor "Pipeline" would make my top 50. (Actually, the former seems to be in the same vein as "Hallowe'en" and doesn't feel as successful to me.) I see Sister as the point where they fully embraced hard rock songs as their medium. For that style, I think Daydream Nation is more accomplished. The playing is tighter and the compositions are more ambitious. I guess the looser, sloppier feel of Sister is part of the appeal for its devotees? I do like the trebly analogue sound of the recording.

It's still a great album from the best era of one of my favourite bands of all time though!

Ha xposts

xp. titanium exposé is great, i had almost forgotten about it. what i really don't get in this poll is that goo is not even in the top ten albums. it is my no. 2 after dirty and in front of daydream nation. i find it is their most uplifting and most fun album. the cartoon cover fits well to the juvenile, light-hearted musical content. listening to it makes me feel good. it also makes me feel young and jaunty. and not only because of the nostalgic value - i was young(er) when i heard it first - but because of an intrinsic youthfulness in the music itself.

I think the qualities that you find fun and uplifting make it seem (not bad but) slight to me.

i think "Washing Machine" is missing from the playlist?

Cheers - added it now.

why should fun music be slighter than earnest music? that is surely one of the wrongest and stupidest prejudices in the world of arts. just think of mozart, is the magic flute slight?

love when Kim deadpans slang ("All's").

mainhattan otm

On top of that, Goo features some of their most aggressive riffing. If you don't like riffing, then you fail at life.

half of Goo is basically Daydream Nation 2 (in a good way), half of it is kinda funny and half-assed. great album but i can understand why many underestimate it.

I didn't say that fun music in general is slighter than earnest music (and I would really question how earnest Bad Moon Rising is anyway). I just find the 'fun' punky songs on Goo to be slight. I guess this means I don't find them as uplifting as you do. I don't find the Beatles (or Mozart) slight when they do lighter, fun things.

xposts This sums it up for me: half of Goo is basically Daydream Nation 2 (in a good way), half of it is kinda funny and half-assed.

I don't dislike it (or riffs) btw. I just don't think it's their greatest work.

Yeah, I was laying on thick with the if you don't like riffing bit, but I think it actually cut to the core of what I like most about SY, and why Goo and Rather Ripped are my favorite SY albums. Lean and reasonably mean songs with hooks and punchiness, and very little ponderous experimentalism.

Goo only sounds weak now given what they've released since then.

I mean, I never thought of them primarily as an anthemic alt-rock band. I know many people do. What you consider "ponderous experimentalism" is probably what I often listen to them for.

xpost

I'm just being a smartass today. I'm cool with a lot of SY that's not "anthemic," but it at least has to groove a little instead of just sounding like a practice space where they left all the instruments on and walked out for a cigarette (which is what NYCG&F sounds like to me in a lot of places).

I like them in various gears, but some records a) fall flat or b) weren't on my radar at the time and I can't "get" them.

they had, at a minimum, a 4-album stretch of being one of the best loud fast anthemic rock bands in the world, which is better than a lot of bands like that manage in their whole careers, so i'm fine w/ them having moved on to slightly mellower pastures thereafter

I love Skip Tracer. It has so many golden lines of pithy genius. Its funny too. "twister, dust buster, hospital bed" "very I'm-in-a-band" "clothes flung out of closets, doorknobs falling off" "yes sir yes sir step right up" "hello 2015" etc. etc.

Fall flat = SN (largely), Evol (relatively speaking), Eternal
Can't "get" it = DN, Goo (largely), debut EP

Then there are SY albums that hit me on some special level for aesthetic or personal mythology reasons..

Mythology: WM, Dirty, ATL, SS
Aesthetics: RR, MS, SYR9, CIS

Of course there's definitely overlap between those categories

Xpost

mid-90s live set by Mecca Normal, the band that inspired "Skip Tracer":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4UACM1MpqE

Somehow I've still never listened to Mecca Normal

BMR and Sister would fall under aesthetic pleasures I think

Can't really believe that "Beauty Lies in the Eye" placed this high. So many better Kim songs. I get that it is a beloved record (and lol yeah 44 isn't THAT high) but still, many Kim songs already placed that are better than this.

― grandavis, Wednesday, May 15, 2013 12:07 PM (3 hours ago)

love "beauty lies": the weird watery guitar sound, the measured vocal & slowly building tension, "hey baby, hey sweetheart, hey fox, come here". you keep waiting for the "shadow of a doubt" style explosion that never comes. it's slight, but very cool.

four more today:

59. Eliminator Jr.
50. Youth Against Fascism
47. Pipeline / Kill Time
44. Beauty Lies in the Eye

i feel a little guilty abt "youth against fascism", but every time it comes on i crank it up & smile. the heart wants what it wants.

what's to feel guilty about?

lots of us voted for it -- it's a terrific performance

it's the hongro i date

Definitely down with "Beauty Lies...". Contenderizer captures the appeal well. Might even be the most durable Sister track for me, as odd as that seems as I type it. Looks like "Pipeline" was my only other track from this batch.

man people who act like Steve lost his touch after Dirty are missing out, Washing Machine is one of their best albums drum-wise, so many cool subtle performances

Favourites?

definitely mainly the 3 that placed today, also shaker section of "Unwind" and the cymbal crazy ending of "No Queen Blues"

definitely need to do my playlist of songs where Steve plays maracas/shakers. so far i got:

Dirty Boots, Bull In The Heather, Hyperstation, Karen Koltrane, Unwind, Anagrama, Female Mechanic Now On Duty, Sunday (SubUrbia version), i think some Made In USA tracks. what am i missing?

Wtf are ppl going onabout Kool Thing veing fun? That song is ferocious! Best single of their altrock phase. Major regrettable omission on my ballot. That part where Kim goes "What'd he say?!" at the end of one of the verses always gets m
Was a bit of a dry run for me then Halloween ushered in a string of my choices: Beauty, Karen, Washing Machine

Youth Against Fascism completely rules and I love it, but I cut it in favor of things I love even more. Conventional wisdom at the time among fellow music fans was that the new album sucked (something I have heard friends say about every single SY album since Sister), but I remember playing YAF once for a friend, who loved it and was like "dammit, Matt and Tony told me this record sucked!"

"Karen Koltrane" is fine but definitely a song that would've been on my ballot 10-15 years ago that wasn't considered for a moment now