Sonic Youth- Daydream Nation (1988)

I love Sonic Youth. I love them a lot. They're one of my absolute, core, comfort bands. To me they evoke my teens and all sort of books I read back in the '90s (William S. Burroughs, Douglas Copeland); the way I dressed back then with my lumberjack shirts and Doc Martens (the hair hasn’t changed); trying to get served in pubs.

This is largely seen, probably correctly, as their best album. I have to agree. Curiously, though, it carries none of the affection or memories for me as an “Evol”, a “Sister” or a “Goo”, Sonic Youth albums from a similar period.

Why? Well, this is more of a soundscape album than the varied collections of songs I’m used to on their other albums, it’s true- not exactly a concept album but a load of long songs over four sides. It’s the closest they ever came to prog in their imperious period. And yet a suspect it’s simply because I happened to hear this album later in life. Which is good; there was still something new from peak period Sonic Youth for me to enjoy as I approached my forties

I’d advise my younger readers, however, not to wait so bloody long!