I second this. And my other least favorite album is The Eternal and my favorite song is Antenna.

Pink Steam.
and
JC.

All sy albums are great. That one has some of the weakest songs i've ever heard of theirs. ALOT of weak songs. Rats, What a waste, and Sleping around are the worst songs i'd head to date by Lee Kim and Thurston respectively.
There are great songs on there but that album was such a bummer after the FUCKING PHENOMENAL SONIC NURSE.

btw Experimental, Jet Set, Trash, and No Star and Bad Moon Rising are two of my favorite SY records.

BMR is what I want to listen to while I careen through outer space in a one-man escape pod after the Borg attack my inter-stellar transport.

Reena on RR and I Love You Golden Blue on SN.

Sonic Youth the EP isn't any better than Rather Ripped to be honest.

bull in the heather or sweet shine

Top three shit on albums by Sonic Youth

Sonic Nurse
Rather Ripped
The Eternal.

Sonic Nurse is my 2nd favorite sy album- second to evol.

Maybe you should decrease the dose a little bit?

Yer a real ass...

You must be kidding? Sonic Nurse is one of their greatest albums! I also like Rather Ripped very much and The Eternal is also good, although there's couple of not so good songs in it (Antenna, Walking Blue).

suchF loves Nurse. he was stating that those are the three that get shit on the most by fans.

and EVOL is amazing. AMAZING. It is for when you need sad noise.

that is an understatement! I revere that the Sonic shrine that is the Nurse album. Its epic. Its like EVERYTHING Sonic Youth is supposed to be, concisely arranged in one perfect record!

Yes. Those are the albums most commonly griped about or shit on by fans, especially on this forum. Though in truth, Nurse has had a bit of a revival as it reaches its nine year anniversary, which also marks how long I've been on this forum.

Antenna kicks ASS! One of my favorite tunes on the Eternal, with that screeching feedback at the bridge it reminds me of Dripping Dream (fuck I miss Jim. I think the O'Rourke era was the best for sonic youth, he was a better bass player than kim which allowed for some extensive freak-out style jams at his feedback oriented guitar work is second to none), and the melodic, droning drum pattern/bass line. When The Eternal first came out, it was not my favorite either, but it totally grew on me, now its in my top-7..

I absolutely agree. He brought such wonderful influence to the band. I am scared to think about the direction they might have taken without him. Jim's absence definitely impacted the band in a negative way, musically, on Rather Ripped.

I agree. Along the late 80's era (from Evol to Goo) O'Rourke era is the best of Sonic Youth. My top 5 albums are probably

Daydream Nation
Sister
Sonic Nurse
Made In USA
Goo/Murray Street/Evol...

I absolutely disagree. Jim is a great musician & brought great things into SY, but all that´s is essential in SY is also in Rather Ripped & Eternal. To dasx, Antenna & Walkin Blue are very very great Sonic tunes, What We Know, Thunderclap for Bobby Pyn & Or are the mediocre songs of those albums (well Or is in the great place, it´s not a great song, but ends album well). I think there are some mediocre songs in almost every Sonic albums (EVOL, Washing Machine & ATL are exceptions).

I would suggest that the period '95 - '05 is their finest era. Washing Machine to Sonic Nurse (including SYR's, Made in USA etc & solo projects) is the longest unbroken run of consistent quality in their catalogue. That hot streak predates O'Rouke's involvement but I'm sure his input helped sustain it.

I would also agree that there are varying degrees of mediocrity/less strong material across most of their output. There are no poor albums as such - just albums where the quality/mediocrity ratio is more clearly pronounced.

Replace "Made In USA" with "Dirty" and this would be my top 5 list also.


I get what you mean but part of the reason RR doesn't really do it for me is because compared to Sonic Nurse it just isn't a very good album. The Eternal is better than RR but I still don't like that album very much either except for Antenna, Malibu Gas Station, Walkin Blue and Massage The History.