About This Page
Maybe some of you know about a New York rock band named Sonic Youth. It was formed in 1981 and existed by 2011. Unlike many other bands, they dropped 32 albums, and none of them was terrible or unsuccessful. They struck a balance between experimentation and melodiousness, chaos and structure continuing experiments throughout their musical career. They developed lots of talents and influenced tons of artists. I am extremely passionate about Sonic Youth. The reason why I made this page is I wanted to share my thoughts and my feelings about them and express that each of their albums is worth attention. About a year and a half a was continuously thinking about ranking their albums according to my opinion. And finally, I have done that. I have not included all the live albums as well as their albums from NYC Ghost and Flowers session for the sake of brevity. Here are the most popular and well-known parts of their discography. And this is what I like about this band the most: the more you are trying to listen to everything they have, the more you discover something new and extremely qualitative.
Tier#1
Tier#1 albums are amazing. They are classical. They blow my mind.
Confusion is Sex
This album is the reason of my no-wave devotion. I adore this melodic and abstract chaos as well as the genre as a whole. Furthermore, this is my favorite album in the no-wave genre.
This album always fills me with a sense of being in a dark and cramped room shrinking down around you.
Daydream Nation
This is a legendary and the most popular album of the band. Firstly I found it boring and too long and complex, but after listening to it several times, I eventually realized its beauty.
This album is not rushing. It is slowly dipping you into noise. And it is full of Sonic Youth's most popular tracks such as Total Trash and Teenage Riot.
Goo
As for me, this album is one of the most easy-to-listen Sonic Youth's albums. It is dynamic and entertaining, quite short and very noisy. I find this album kinda punky and uncomplicated, but still, I adore it.
Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star.
This is undoubtedly the most entertaining album of the band, and it contains my favorite track - Androgynous Mind.
It is very easy to listen, and if you don't know much about Sonic Youth, I'd certainly recommend to give it a try. I think this album is still very intricate despite its easiness.
Tier#2
There is something intricate in each of Tier#2 albums. I find them just a little bit less sectacular, but still, I adore them.
Sister
This album is frightening. While listening to this album, I usually have goosebumps. Firstly I didn't appreciate it, finding Evol much terrifying, but then I realized how much Sonic Youth changed their style and grown up after their previous release.
Washing Machine
This is the album about which I changed my opinion a lot. Firstly, I didn't like it much, finding it too long and overloaded. But after a few listening, I fell in love with these guitars. In addition, it is full of amusing tracks and sounds.
Rather Ripped
This album is where my Sonic Youth Listening Road starts. It is melodic, fascinating, gentle, and extremely easy to listen to. And what is very important, excluding the instrumental album SpinHead Session, this is the last release. There are a few slightly monotonous tracks, but this is the only reason why it is in tier#2.
Dirty
The noisiest album in the whole discography. It is dirty, really. And it is extremely long. I feel it stands really close to Daydream Nation. I was frightened of its cover for a while before I gave this album a try.
Tier#3
These are just fine. Tier#3 is a mix of relatively simple, but sweet albums with some features in each of them.
Bad Moon Rising
A very musically and consistently coherent album. I do not like its sound much, but I enjoy Lydia Lunch on it, and its howls about Bad Moon. Not one of my favorite ones, definitely, but not a bad album.
Evol
Firstly, I adore this album. It was one of my favorites. I enjoy monotony here. And also, this album is an important switch in Sonic Youth's career. They abandoned the no-wave genre and mostly switched to rock. A bit less impressive than Sister, but 100% worth checking.
A Thousand Leaves
I am not completely sure about its place right here. For me, this album is somewhere between tier#3 and tier#4. It is a bit peculiar. But the cover is awesome. Perfectly describes the weirdness.
Tier#4
These are not my favorite. I rarely listen to them. In general, I find them tedious and unsuccessful.
NYC Ghosts&Flowers
I usually forgot about NYC Ghost&Flowers existence. And I cannot either remember or describe it. For me, It is a mess. But in general, people think it is not that bad.
Murray Street
The best thing about this album is its cover, which is one of the most memorable in Sonic Youth discography. In other aspects, I find it tedious as well as Sonic Nurse.
Sonic Nurse
Well, honestly, I don't like this album much. It's too long. It reminds me Rather Ripped, but much more boring and uncreative. I do not understand why in general people think this album is better than others.