Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse: The Poll

My #1 record of 2004.

Tonight I feel like "...Golden Blue." This is what dragging your knuckles against the stone wall of an infatuation feels like.

good pick imo

people kvetching about 21st-century sy being formless/rhythm-less make me 0_o.

i am only talking about this record. i love 'murray street' and quite liked 'rather ripped', i just don't get why this one seems so much more praised.

It doesn't? As a very casual fan, MS, this, and RR seem to get pretty even acclaim. Voted Dripping Dream, but could easily gave gone for Pattern Recognition. The opening three or four are amazing.

Golden Blue by a fair distance. Damn good album tho.

it seems to to me, but maybe i'm sensitive to it because for me it's absolutely the SY record i least want to hear of the ones i listen to (everything from 'evol' on); i don't think any of the ones i do listen to are bad in the way that i hear some people saying some are good, some bad; and a lot of people think it's 'best since DN'. so it's, like, the one aberration for me.

i was surprised to see MS do better on the ilx 00s SY poll though.

some food 4 thought:

NYC Ghosts & Flowers (2000)
104th in Pazz & Jop
3 1/2 stars from Rolling Stone
2 1/2 stars from Allmusic
0.0 from Pitchfork

Murray Street (2002)
20th in Pazz & Jop
4 stars from Rolling Stone
4 stars from Allmusic
9.0 from Pitchfork

Sonic Nurse (2004)
37th in Pazz & Jop
3 1/2 stars from Rolling Stone
4 stars from Allmusic
8.5 from Pitchfork

Rather Ripped (2006)
12th in Pazz & Jop
4 stars from Rolling Stone
4 stars from Allmusic
7.5 from Pitchfork

The Eternal (2009)
4 stars from Rolling Stone
4 stars from Allmusic
6.8 from Pitchfork

― best of the badman log (some dude), Wednesday, June 17, 2009 10:42 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark

this post from that thread kinda sums up the relative acclaim of each of their last few albums (The Eternal placed 20th on Pazz & Jop)

hm, do love this record from start to finish but except for unmade bed and golden blue i can't really tell the tracks apart.

Paper Cup Exit - "It's later than it seems".

Lovely song - that line has always made me think of the band itself, releasing great records well beyond the time great rock bands should be allowed.

I made a comp. of the last four albums for a couple of friends with that very title.

my comp of the later years is called JAMS RUN FREE and is full of mostly 7+ minute joints

Paper Cup Exit - "It's later than it seems".

Lovely song - that line has always made me think of the band itself, releasing great records well beyond the time great rock bands should be allowed.

I made a comp. of the last four albums for a couple of friends with that very title.

― kraudive, Sunday, July 31, 2011 8:01 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark

Enjoy Yourself (It's Later than You Think)
"Enjoy Yourself" is a popular song published in 1949, with music written by Carl Sigman and lyrics by Herb Magidson.
The most popular version of the song, recorded by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, was made on November 27 (some sources give November 28), 1949. The recording was released by Decca Records as catalog number 24825. The record first reached the Billboard charts on January 13, 1950 and lasted 19 weeks on the chart, peaking at #10.[1]
Another recording, by Doris Day, was made on January 13, 1950 and released by Columbia Records as catalog number 38709.
Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra made a recording on February 2, 1949 which was released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-3375.

"New Hampshire" is probably a lesser track but I always liked it. Voted for that one.

i listened to this again today after quite a long time, and i did notice some new things. i don't think i had appreciated what was going on in the guitars. it sounds like they made a deliberate effort to place all three guitars in colloquy with each other on the same level, and they kind of circle around each other in space, maybe more than the more-linear back-and-forth that's typical of their two-guitar setup. it makes the songs more interesting. but maybe in the past i didn't hear that as much because the sound is pretty booming on the low end (shelley is really loud on this one!) and the broad-stroke lines of the songs aren't as… riff-shaped as i'm used to, so that the whole thing can take on the aspect of being kind of lifeless if you don't really pick up on the triple-interplay.

i think someone on one of the sonic nurse threads made a comparison to 'washing machine'—maybe that's a helpful comparison for the kind of interplay they're after. off the top of my head i can't really imagine what's going on with kim's playing on 'murray street', i would guess she kind of does texture or fillery stuff. but on 'nurse' she seems to have more of an audibly equivalent role to thurston and lee. (are they still generally L and R on all the tracks?)

(a lot of that seems to change again on 'rather ripped': who is usually playing the texturey / distorted / treated part there?)

No can do - Sonic Nurse is one of those albums where i don't pay much attention to the individual tracks - the whole meal gets et at once. Hell, i've listened to this album at least 50 times and didn't recognize one of their titles. In fact, i started cruising through the tracks on grooveshark to see what might jump out - nothing really did. So i said "screw it" and played the album straight through --- ahh, delightful. So, by default, my vote goes to the lead track.

i think the album has individual standouts but there is something true about how it holds together as more than the sum of its parts -- when i did my best-of mix, i was surprised to find myself using more songs from Rather Ripped than Nurse, which i consider a better album, but RR has shorter songs that stand alone more naturally.

Last great SY album for me, voting 'Unmade Bed' but it could've easily been 'Pattern Recognition', 'Golden Blue' or 'New Hampshire' too. Great record.

i think i listen to this one more because none of the songs are long enough that they are cut off on spotify and my sy cds are under a bed in a guest room in my parents' house

that said 'pattern recognition' puts me in a bad mood from the off: "i'm a cool hunter making you my way / like a brand name you'll replay" ugh

to what extent when listening to sonic youth do people make an effort to let what the songs are 'about' register w/them? kind of curious about this

bad mood rising

I liked this record a lot! and listened to it a lot! and now I seriously couldn't tell you anything about any of the songs on it

This was tough, it was between Unmade Bed, Stones, and Golden Blue. Had to go with Stones...it's epic and reassuring and it rocks! I may like this record more than Murray Street but it's certainly a toss-up.

yr selections echo mine exactly. My favorite SY album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdO3AEV6g1A
this one was a bonus track on some versions of sonic nurse (showed up on destroyed room too). might vote for this if it was an option!

prefer this lp to Eternal and Ripped. would probably go for Pattern Recognition

rating in order

Stones
Golden Blue
Pattern Recognition
Unmade Bed
New Hampshire
Paper Cup Exit
Dude Ranch Nurse
Peace Attack
Dripping Dream
Mariah Carey

...though I'm glad I don't have to rank them. Also I think the sequencing is quite good, which sometimes is a weak spot with them IMO.

to what extent when listening to sonic youth do people make an effort to let what the songs are 'about' register w/them? kind of curious about this

Hardly ever.

...this reminds me how little ive listened to the last three youth records.

― king of torts (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Saturday, July 30, 2011 7:54 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark

^^ this.

i keep trying with these albums and they just don't stick

Ha, I listened yesterday and "New Hampshire" does sound slight. Not sure which I'd single out though... "Unmade Bed"?

I Love You Golden Blue

I listened to this for the first time yesterday: it was only okay for me. And I really expected to like it. It has traces of both Murray Street's mellow jam-band meanderings and Rather Ripped's clean-cut guitar pop, though I mostly this album sounds like vague atonal classic rock...

Looks like the poll is down to Unmade Bed vs. I Love You Golden Blue. I'm voting Thurston, a relatively rare occasion.

keep trying with these albums and they just don't stick

― goole

xpost funny, RR and the E sounded mostly immediately great to my ears and they've fared well with repeat listens. nurse hadn't done as much for me until this week/poll when i've been rotating it in constantly and now i think i slightly underrated it. i'm lousy with sy song titles in general and don't think i'm voting but ilm comes through again (in a way)

I kind of hate "Peace Attack". I'm not sure exactly why. Musically, it feels like a retread of one of Moore's solo tracks, which haven't ever really been truly essential material in the first place. The vocals seem especially lazy and somehow grating for me in the sing-song nature, I dunno?

I love Sonic Youth but does anyone like them for their lyrics? Other than Kim's which are pretty good sometimes. I can't think of a band more loved with less to offer word wise

Light the way...candle

lyrics to "the wonder"/"hyperstation"/"eliminator jr." trilogy are some of my faves ever

also "i can't get laid 'cuz everyone is dead." c'mon.

the trilogy are indeed the best lyrics i can remember, thanks for reminding me

how much i enjoy, comprehend, pay attention to or ponder Sonic Youth lyrics varies pretty wildly from song to song, from album to album, from singer to singer. obviously it's not priority #1 with them but they've got some pretty evocative gems here and there.

lyrically i do prefer early jokey nihilist waiting for mutually assured destruction s.y. to placid hippie grandparents catching a vibe s.y.

old man thurston on the farm is hilarious

"new hampshire." there's a good live version on youtube... nimble, propulsive track.

― Lowell N. Behold'n, Sunday, 31 July 2011 02:26 (3 days ago)

never caught them live during the tour of this album but i love thurston's vocal switch for this track live.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0i7H-ALg2o

the drums on that song are so dope

ah, mariah, you're endless.

listening to this now front to back, which i never do for any albums anymore, and this still sounds great

keys: headphones, don't play it too softly

because i started appreciating 'sonic nurse' i have decided to listen to every single SY album through in order. (i listen to them front to back all the time, but i don't know if i've ever played all of them first to last.)

listened to this on the way to work this morning. main thing -- guitars are beautifully recorded/mixed. just a really wonderful tangle of sound that's somehow dense without being super-heavy. only song i'm not really fond of is the mariah carey one, has to be kim's most irritating vocal. kind of wish dripping dream was an instrumental -- love the music, sort of can't stand thurston's vocal/lyrics. last two tracks are a great pair. not sure what to vote for -- probably either "stones" or "golden blue"?

both good choices -- i wonder how much of the technical stuff is due to o'rourke's involvement -- iirc he wasn't involved in rather ripped & it sounds much more bricked and less interesting/pleasing 2 meh

Somebody put the question to Thurston in another SY thread.

lol i think i asked whoever that was to ask thurston iirc

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I thought The Visitor was amazing, but I really wanted to hear him sing again. I was disappointed with Simple Songs - there's just something off about that record.

fucking incredible record

also, i think some people on ILM have complained about steve shelley during this period (maybe being too same-y in his playing?) but man, on this tape the guy is incredible, just powering the whole thing along.

― tylerw, Wednesday, April 19, 2017 9:20 AM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol i was just thinking about these bullshit arguments while listening to shelley's awesome tom/hi-hat pattern in the chorus of "unmade bed"

to think he didn't want them to release his raw takes on thousand leaves

i was so fucken pissed that 'pink steam' didn't walk this but. . . o ya, that was a different album.

this one's good too, tho.

sorry if this is weird but "paper cut exit" is my favorite lee song of all time

"Paper Cup Exit" is so good. I love that song sincerely, and don't think you are off-base there. And as fans an idea of "favorite" needs to be different than "best" in some ways. Like, who cares what Lee's "best" song is, it doesn't matter. It is more fun to listen to people talk about what their favorites are and why. I personally think "Paper Cup Exit" is up there for Lee SY songs too.

Their best LP imo, at least, it's the one I've played the most over the years.

I saw them on the tour for this album and the sound from the stage was so good, it sounded like they were plugged into my brain. It's a great great record. I adore "Stones", it just washes me away.

My favorite of their '00s albums.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn),

I still prefer Murray Street, but this album is magnificent.