So well and modestly did Sonic Youth present itself as a three-headed hydra that revelations about Thurston Moore’s loutish behavior didn’t affect my attitude; decapitate one head, another springs up, no? Took me a couple albums to distinguish Moore from Beat-damaged co-guitarist Lee Ranaldo too. But Sonic Youth had broken up long before, and what they make in streaming revenue, I imagine, is incommensurate with their reputation. Long live Kim Gordon, master of po-faced cool since the High Reagan Era.
So I rank’em. No terrible albums. The early work sounds unrealized: attempts to channel a spirit of anarchy without song structures in which to test the anarchy, not to mention the structures. NYC Ghosts & Flowers‘ reputation is unmerited; to my ears it’s an innocuous reprise of its superior, airier predecessors — Sonic Youth covering these albums in their version of adult contemporary fare. How I ranked my favorites last year, by the way.
Meh
NYC Ghosts & Flowers
Confusion is Sex
Bad Moon Rising
Sound, Solid
Dirty
Murray Street
Goo
The Eternal
Washing Machine
Good to Great
Sister
Daydream Nation
Sonic Nurse
EVOL
Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star
A Thousand Leaves
Rather Ripped
Humanizing The Vacuum 