Daydream Nation (Deluxe Edition) [Deluxe Edition, Original recording remastered]

Sonic Youth | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 12, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 1988
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Deluxe Edition, Original recording remastered
• Label: Geffen Records
• ASIN: B000Q3648S
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (179 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #47,209 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

The essential New York rock band of the post-punk era, Sonic Youth care as much about the quasi-symphonic, microtonal art-guitar music of composers like Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca as they do about the rock-song form, and with Daydream Nation, they struck their greatest balance between the two. The songs hover gorgeously for extended lengths, letting guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo intertwine fragile tonalities as carefully as it's possible to do at wall-shaking volume, while Moore and bassist Kim Gordon's untutored voices disaffectedly intone words that flirt with pop stupidity, high-art eloquence, and urban cool. When they bear down and rock, they do it with a blurry intensity that finds gorgeousness at the heart of discord. --Douglas Wolk

Product Description

"100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s" (Rolling Stone, 1989)
"100 Alternative Albums" (Spin, 1995)
"Top 99 Albums of `85 to `95" (Alternative Press, 1995)
"The Essential 200 Rock Records" (Rolling Stone, 1997)
"Top 100 Albums of All Time" (New Musical Express, 2003)

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deluxe Treatment of Sonic Youth's Breakthrough Album, June 12, 2007

By 

directions "neuralbuddhist" (Space Time Foam) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Daydream Nation (Deluxe Edition) (Audio CD)

Daydream Nation is clearly Sonic Youth's breakthrough album. A two lp set that focused all their previous ideas into one cohesive and brilliant album. The songs are stretched out more (though still song length)giving more of an idea of what they sounded like live. Music at this time was stuck in pop doldrums. Sonic Youth, which had built up a cult following, after the release of this album were then signed by a major label and brought all the indie rock bands into the light eventually including one that was just getting a start in Seattle that would soon eclipse all of them in popularity. However, back to Daydream Nation. The sprawling, though in no way self indulgent quality of the album took Sonic Youth into a new direction. Now, in getting the deluxe reissue treatment,it sheds new light on the album. On the 2nd disc you not only get live versions of all of the songs on the album (and Sonic Youth live takes what they do in the studio to a new level) but rarities as their version of "Within You, Without You" which was previously only available on a rare tribute album. If Daydream Nation were released for the first time this year, it would be one of the best albums of the year and with this deluxe reissue, in many ways it is.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Contrary To The CD Cover, This Ain't "Candle In The Wind"..., August 12, 1998

By 

Scott Lindholm (Davenport, IA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Daydream Nation (Audio CD)

I remember the day well. It was the day after Thanksgiving, 1989, and I was out shopping for CDs. "Rolling Stone" had just listed their top 100 albums of the '80's, and #45 on that list was "Daydream Nation." I liked what I had read, so I picked up the CD, and was blown away. From the opening track "Teen Age Riot" to the final "Trilogy," it's a non-stop stream of consciousness ride. The sheer guitar power of the duo of Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo make this a tour de force of white noise and feedback. Many groups thought that Sonic Youth would be the group that led the "alternative" wave of the early '90's that was instead championed by Nirvana, and in a way, Sonic Youth had a hand in that, since Nirvana were proteges of the band. Indeed, Courtney Love met Kurt Cobain through Sonic Youth bassist (and Thurston Moore's wife) Kim Gordon, who produced Hole's first album. Although I believe that "Sister" is the best Sonic Youth album, this one is likewise a masterpiece, an excellent starting point to discover one of the most underrated bands in rock history.

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best album of 1988...and 2007!, June 22, 2007

By 

Scott Bresinger (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Daydream Nation (Deluxe Edition) (Audio CD)

The fifth album (more or less) by The Best Rock Band of the Last 25 Years should need no introduction, and indeed if you're interested in buying the deluxe edition of Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation," I can presume you're probably already a fan. You already know how the album summed up and then changed the course of the underground rock movement of the 80s, how the ample attention of critics, then music fans, then record labels set the stage for the alternative rock revolution of the 90s--oh well whatever Nevermind and yada yada yada. If, however, you haven't already drank the Kool-Aid (and you should!), some brief notes about the "basic" edition...

"Daydream Nation" is still hailed as Sonic Youth's grand masterpiece, and yeah, it still holds up as such (confession: it's my second favorite SY album after Sister), even if it doesn't seem as radical today as it did when it came out. Sure, there are swirling whirlwinds of oddly-(de)tuned guitars and feedback fading in, out and sometimes interrupting the songs, but make no mistake, there are definitely songs to be found here. The openening "Teenage Riot" is, for its galloping drums and lyrical cheekiness (imagining Dinosaur Jr's J. Mascis as president, or so Thurston Moore has said) basically a melodic and even hummable pop song. Even a more "experimental" song like "The Sprawl" has a certain immediacy, with bassist/vocalist Kim Gordon saying straigt out "does f**k you sound simple enough?" Heck, the closing "trilogy" of the album has all the power and intensity familiar to any classic rock fans, only with a live-wire buzzing and skree that comes from playing in one of Glenn Branca's guitar-army ensembles. Really, it's not so radical after all (for a taste of something far weirder, check out Twin Infinitives, which was released around the same time as DN by Royal Trux, a New York band friendly with Sonic Youth).

For us fan(atic)s, the real treat here is the second disc of this set, which features live versions of all the album's tracks, culled from the band's original tour supporting the album, albeit in a different order (SY has recently announced it will play "Daydream Nation" as part of a special show, presumably in the album's running order). These tracks, mostly of excellent sound quality, are shorter but sharper than the album versions. "Total Trash" is done as an instrumental (I could be wrong, but they seem to be quoting the early Pink Floyd's instrumental "Interstellar Overdrive" in one spot), preceded by another instrumental, "Totally Trashed," which toys around with electronics a bit. Mostly these are no-holds-barred performances that clearly draw on the band's love of hardcore punk and NYC No Wave (DNA, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks). I don't know how a non-fan would react, but for yours truly it's pure Sonic bliss.

Another great bonus on disc two is the inclusion of four cover songs, three of which were taken from now hard-to-find tribute albums (this was before that concept got beaten to death): "Within You Without You" (The Beatles), "Computer Age" (Neil Young) and "Electricity" (Captain Beefheart). There's also a version of Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick," with demented vocals from Kim, taken from a split 7" (as in vinyl, kids) that had the other band doing SY's "Halloween" on the reverse (alas, that version isn't included here). The Beatles cover in particular shows how the band could translate their sound into completely different realms--the original, of course, was played mostly with sitars.

Add all that to a package that includes ultra-Kool, and rare, pictures and an extensive essay by longtime SY friend Byron Coley, and you have a true Sonic feast. Like they did with the Goo Deluxe Edition and the Dirty (Deluxe Edition), Sonic Youth rewards fans and newcomers alike almost to the bursting point. Now let's hope they burn down the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame before too long...