The double album that brought Sonic Youth to the attention of a wider audience and prompted the eager interest of a handful of major labels. DAYDREAM NATION, with its sleepy single candle flickering silently on the gatefold cover, harnessed their reckless live favourite, “Teenage Riot,” while they ran gloriously roughshod over “Rain King” and “Silver Rocket,” and offered the overtly camp glee of “Trilogy,” which came with parts a, b and c. Their assured ascension to festival billing and the giant Geffen label came as no surprise to anyone who had heard this album.

Tracklisting
1. Teen Age Riot
2. Silver Rocket
3. The Sprawl
4. Cross The Breeze
5. Eric’s Trip
6. Total Trash
7. Hey Toni
8. Providence
9. Candle
10. Rain King
11. Kissability
12. Trilogy: The Wonder / Hyperstation / Eliminator

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.74) – 5 stars out of 5 — “[I]ts tunings keep it honest and its anthems keep it thrilling.”

Rolling Stone (10/89) – 3.5 Stars – Very Good – Ranked #45 in Rolling Stone’s ‘100 Greatest Albums Of The 80s’ survey.

Spin (p.100) – 5 stars out of 5 — “In terms of badass sonics and sentiments, perhaps the greatest art-punk statement ever.”

Spin (1/89, p.67) – “…this music is hitting me right where I live…”

Q (7/96, p.144) – 3 Stars – Good – “…regarded by many as the Youth’s greatest work….DAYDREAM NATION…contain[s] the glorious, Nirvana-predicting ‘Teen Age Riot’…”

Uncut (p.94) – 5 stars out of 5 — “[An] avant-rock masterpiece….If it had been recorded yesterday, DAYDREAM NATION would still sound revolutionary.”

Alternative Press (7/95, p.89) – Rated #51 in AP’s list of the ‘Top 99 Of ‘85-’95′ – “…Sonic Youth’s most focused, fully-realized work. This [is] the document of a band at the height of their powers, distilling every lesson they [have] learned in guitar terrorism, songwriting, rock action, and shattering conventions into a sustained series of electrical shocks…”

CMJ (1/5/04, p.26) – Ranked #20 in CMJ’s “Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1989″

Down Beat (p.72) – 4.5 stars out of 5 — “Widely hailed as Sonic Youth’s masterpiece….DAYDREAM NATION was a lean, graceful blast of subcultural New York writ large…”

Melody Maker (5/4/96, p.58) – “…The mid-period Sonic LPs, specifically SISTER and DAYDREAM NATION, are generally regarded as their most fully realised…”

Kerrang (Magazine) (p.50) – “[The album] opened the floodgates for acolytes such as Nirvana….You can practically hear the ’90s being invented…”

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