Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation (33 1/3) [Paperback]

Matthew Stearns (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2007

Daydream Nation is the kind of gorgeous monstrosity (born of extremes, rife with difficulties, and mythic in proportion) that can crush the will of the most resilient, well-intentioned listener if the necessary preparations haven't been made.Matthew Stearns explores the album from a range of angles, including a track-by-track analysis and a look at the historical and cultural context within which the album was made. Featuring a foreword by Lee Ranaldo and exclusive interviews with the band, this truly is the definitive guide to Daydream Nation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Matthew Stearns is a writer of considerable moxie, possessed if a thoroughly unhinged and seemingly endless thesaurus, and supremely convinced of this album's majesty....

After painting the scene for us wherein the band recorded the album (hot New York summer, cramped recording space, a legendarily experimental band at a crux in their career and looking to expand, explosively if necessary) Stearns methodically walks readers through the album itself. Song by song. Line by line. Moment by moment. It's a revelatory construct, particularly for a record as deeply layered in influences and abstractions as Daydream Nation is. Along the way, Stearns gives a helpful overview of the band members themselves (most of whom he appears to have interviewed), annotating how their omnivorous cultural feedings and art-school backgrounds created such an ambition and uncategorizeable piece of work.

...Stearns' words stick. Few writers could get away with lines like "We're all teenagers at the mercy of rock's beauty and elan." Amen, brother."- Chris Barsanti, popmatters.com

(Pop Matters )

“Matthew Stearns is a writer of considerable moxie, possessed if a thoroughly unhinged and seemingly endless thesaurus, and supremely convinced of this album’s majesty….

After painting the scene for us wherein the band recorded the album (hot New York summer, cramped recording space, a legendarily experimental band at a crux in their career and looking to expand, explosively if necessary) Stearns methodically walks readers through the album itself. Song by song. Line by line. Moment by moment. It’s a revelatory construct, particularly for a record as deeply layered in influences and abstractions as Daydream Nation is. Along the way, Stearns gives a helpful overview of the band members themselves (most of whom he appears to have interviewed), annotating how their omnivorous cultural feedings and art-school backgrounds created such an ambition and uncategorizeable piece of work.

…Stearns’ words stick. Few writers could get away with lines like “We’re all teenagers at the mercy of rock’s beauty and elan.” Amen, brother.”- Chris Barsanti, popmatters.com

(, )

About the Author

Matthew Stearns is a regular contributor to Resonance magazine. A onetime graduate student in comparative literature, he has also held down jobs as a seasonal construction worker in Alaska, black-market babysitter in Paris, bookseller, editorial assistant, and record store clerk.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (March 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082641740X
• ISBN-13: 978-0826417404
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #575,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Possibly the worst 33 1/3 book I've read, September 16, 2007

By 

David Pin "DPin" (Miami FL, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation (33 1/3) (Paperback)

I've read about 10 of the series' books and the criticisms about the bad writing in other reviews hold up against this book. Page after page of "listening to this is MIND BLOWING". Thanks guy, but I already like the album -- that's why I bought the book! For examples of a 33 1/3 book done well, see the bowie "low", rem "murmur" or beastie boys' "paul's boutique" books ("murmur" in particular). Most grating were his incorrect analysis' conclusions and run-on look at my style-less style. 2 pages after you mention how Public Enemy and Chuck D were in the studio next door, and SY met and befriended them, right after you go on and on about urban distopia and hip hop and multiculturalism affecting the band in NYC ...a few pages after all of that, you're wondering what Kim's urging "Kick It!" about? Have you even heard hip hop from the late 80's? I disliked this book so much, I created an account just to review it and warn others to be ready for it's disappointment.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This could've been so much better., December 29, 2007

By 

J. C. Berry (College Park, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation (33 1/3) (Paperback)

I picked this up thinking, like the other books in the 33 1/3 series, it would be an exploration of how Sonic Youth wrote/recorded/released Daydream Nation, and there are some sections on that, but most of it is the author talking about how amazing the album is, and analyzing it in a way that would make pretentious 11th grade AP English students blush. I'm not done with it yet, but the most egregious example of this so far is found in the chapter on "Hey Joni," which features Lee Ranaldo yelling "Kick it!" right before the band kicks into a noise jam. Stearns speculates that the line is referring to the character of Joni in the song "kicking" a drug habit, without providing any other references to this over the course of the song. A lot of the fawning praise that Stearns puts on the album is written in a stream-of-consciousness manner, when this book could have been significantly more streamlined and edited.

Sonic Youth is definitely a high-minded band with roots in artistic and literary traditions, and there's no question that Daydream Nation is a thematically ambitious album. Unfortunately, Stearns approaches it in the wrong way. Diehard fans will find merit in this because of the quotes from interviews, but people who are more interested in Sonic Youth should just read Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life instead.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Cost to benefit ratio..., October 9, 2007

By 

Clint A. Penick "33 and 1/3 satisfied" (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation (33 1/3) (Paperback)

Economy of language is a phrase often used when talking about modern writing, and it may be used here. For every good, hard sentence in Stearns' book there are at least 500 hyperbolic adjectives and glaring adverbs. I paid ten dollars for the book, but now I believe the information is only worth two or three of those dollars. Again, Stearns spends most of his time trying to convince you that Sonic Youth is a great band and that the album is amazing, and he tries so hard that it makes me question if the album really is that good (but of course it is). My recommendation, skim the book in the bookstore or just read the Wikipedia article on Daydream Nation.