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

Big surprise.

I WANNA KNOW

xp kotton krown was my #9, still a great song, i love its sluggishness and how it slowly embraces cacophony in the second half before getting back to the theme. the first three minutes must be about the most tuneful on sister.

'Cross the Breeze is the DN track I voted for. Just such a massive and relentless song, by far the best on Daydream Nation.

My #5 and highest (exclusively) Kim song! Musically this song does almost everything I like about SY in one song. Just love the progression of it.

And yeah, totally relentless! Never seems like a 7 minute song to me.

I took a look into the hate
It made me feel very up to date

it's hard for me to say exactly why "mote" hits me so hard. in part, it's the soft cloud of vocals and gtr fuzz/production wrapped around this furious percussive maelstrom. the energy of it is so intense, it pins my ears back every time i hear it, and i can't think of another sy track where the integration between musical & lyrical suggestion is so tight & evocative.

i often think of evol having this quality of a warm, half liquid bundle of fur and flesh wrapped around a thicket of twitching razors. you hold it in your hand, and it feels soft, soothing, bruised in a way, but also gentle. every once in a while, though, a blade will whisper out and cut you. the feeling of the album is of having something like in your body always - purring, aching, cutting.

"mote" is similar, but also very different. it's soft, yearning, almost comforting, but inside is this furious engine, a rocket blasting through the haze. it's like tripping for the first time: beautiful but overwhelming, awesome, a bit scary. the drumming is incredible. and it's hook after hook after hook. shit, maybe it should have been my #1.

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/005.jpg
5. Teen Age Riot
Daydream Nation, 1988
(519 points, 24 votes, 2 #1)

!

wooooowww – thought this was #1!

for some reason i thought "'Cross The Breeze" had already placed so i hadn't factored it into my assumptions of what the top 10 would like. i guess "White Kross" didn't make it at all?

i'm hoping so hard for a "Shadow of a Doubt" upset right now

satisfactory, given that it had to be top 5

which will be the four remaining songs? i have no clue. i wanted to put nic fit as my number but in the end i only put it at #10, it's the highest rated song left on my ballot now.

Yeah, my #13, though I think it deserves top 10 for sure (for the riff alone ....) Top 5 I am fine with, but I knew at least two of the songs left would beat it, at least on ILM. Thanks for not letting me down btw.

Also, thanks for the "Mote" thoughts Contenderizer. Doesn't sway me, but I totally get the feeling you are describing, and yeah, EVOL is like an album long meditation on it.

i wanted to put nic fit as number 1...

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/004.jpg
4. Shadow of a Doubt
Evol, 1986
(656 points, 28 votes, 3 #1)

Let's not guess the songs please! Maybe we will be surprised?

Shadow of a Doubt would have been my #1.

nah there is no suspense about the top 3 if you think about it for a minute

i am definitely in suspense about the order, though

i know for sure what 2 of them are

cool results, lotsa twists. I voted Brave Men Run (never realized it shared initials with Bad Moon Rising), and Kotton Krown was my #1.

also, another big point jump there

i know for sure what 2 of them are

― Salt Mama Celeste (donna rouge),

Yeah. Tell it like it is.

schiz
diamond
expressway

uh...

shadow?
purr?
brother james?
bull in the heather?

shadow it is

i don't get the love for shadow of a doubt. it is really nothing special, a track which just meanders and never really gets started. what's the deal?

it is beautiful, sexy, haunting and terrifying in equal measure

^^this. i put it on a mixtape for the first guy i ever dated

also, like, explosive crescendo, how can you miss that

I think the biggest point jump so far. My #8, such a cool song. Love it for all the reasons Contenderizer lists.

can't fathom how you could get to "must have been a DREAAAM!" and still be waiting for the song to start

Plus it has the best music video of all time iirc

blew me away as an encore in 98

i was definitely like "KIM TOTALLY LOOKED AT ME DURING THAT SONG"

One of those songs the makes guitar harmonics seem like about the best thing in the world sonically.

wtf alex

The quiet, unsettling parts of A Thousand Leaves are more sophisticated iterations of those quiet, unsettling guitar ripples in "Shadow of a Doubt."

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/003.jpg
3. Expressway to Yr Skull
Evol, 1986
(685 points, 29 votes, 4 #1)

Cross the Breeze was my #1, was hoping for top 5 and to beat out TAR, but still v satisfied w 'almost' in this case...

xp so it has nostalgic value, i get that. the crescendo is pretty tiny, understated, maybe that's the point? but still the song is extremely repetitive and not very inventive. too boring, def not my cup of tea. sorry.

xp anyways, Expressway.

'That's gotta be the greatest song ever written.'

-Neil Young

yes my mixtape anecdote means that's the only reason i like it

always wondered whether Neil was being nice. Had he actually heard it?

Too low! What's wrong with you people. This epic is way cooler than that other super-long epic you all voted so high.

Vinyl, with the lock-groove repeating for 10 minutes or so, is the only way to experience Expressway.

idk, I assume SY still ended p much every set with it back in those days...

(xp to Alfred)

(those days = when they were opening for Neil)