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

by Matthew Stearns (Author)
Key Phrases: daydream nation, total trash, silver rocket, Sonic Youth, New York, Teen Age Riot (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"'A brilliant series of pocket-sized books focussing on a classic album. Each one a work of real love.' NME"

Product Description
   

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (March 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082641740X
• ISBN-13: 978-0826417404
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 4.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #561,163 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This item is part of The Thirty Three and a Third Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Mix of Candles and (Not Quite) Total Trash, April 10, 2007

By	Harry Crewz (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Matthew Stearns' incredibly stoked exploration of Daydream Nation couples extreme fanboy enthusiasm, lyrical disassemblage, and reasonable research skills to cook up a close listening of this seminal record. The first few dozen pages of the book are pretty engaging if overstated; Stearns has a knack for the colorful post-cyberpunk flourish and the thrilling, mind-bending journey it is to not just listen to, but inhabit this record with total dedication. Unfortunately, the assault is feebly written or edited in parts (the section dedicated to "Trilogy" is particularly weak), and according to someone claiming to be Thurston Moore when commenting on the 33 1/3 blog, Stearns' lyrical interpretations are wrong ... at least on some of Thurston's lyrics. But, take those blog-based criticisms with a grain of salt: sections on "Teenage Riot", "Hey Joni", "Candle", and "Providence" are strong, and Stearns does a fine job of digging into the band's early past and no wave/noise roots on the Lower East Side, and tells us how drummer Steve Shelley came to join SY. This isn't the book I was expecting, but with the 33 1/3 Series, each book rarely is. Despite its flaws, this book is worth the read.

10 of 13 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

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.

3 of 3 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)

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.