Every Sonic Youth Album, Ranked (by spin.com)
 

Every Sonic Youth Album, Ranked



I would most probably give a completely different ranking to this, and so would anyone. But Murray Street on 3? And A Thousand Leaves on 13?

I mean, musical taste is incredibly subjective. Ask 10 people and you'll have 10 very different lists. I for one think A Thousand Leaves has some of the best songs of their 90s catalogue on there, yet I don't think it works quite as well as an album as most others do - it feels a bit disjointed to me in spite of its great individual tracks, but that's just me. Which in no way makes it a bad album, just one I rather enjoy for its individual songs than its structure.



Anyway, if I had to insert my pet-peeve it's that BMR is once again getting one of the middling to lower ranks. Not a lot of love for this absolutely amazing album from mainstream critics. Also: NYCGAF was one of their most cohesive albums in the overall mood and atmosphere. Never got why it was so maligned/met with lukewarm reception. Infamous Pitchfork review notwithstanding, people still haven't quite warmed up to it yet, even if they may not openly hate it. But, oh well, it's polarizing and probably ran counter to people's expectations at the time, I guess.

Shocked, although everything is subjective that top is really far from my perception of the band's work. 'Rather Ripped' amongs their best albums, absolutely no, I agree with Antagon, NYCGAF is a very interesting lp, maybe its production could be improvable but... and 'Goo' and 'Daydream Nation' are incredible but at this point everyone put them in the first places by dogma or something.

lol, their ranking is even worse :-)
funny though that Goo is ranked on top, I remember from years ago that it was for many one of their least favourites

Everyone knows this is the definitive ranking...

1. Sister - 10/10
2. Daydream Nation - 10/10
3. Washing Machine - 9/10
4. Dirty - 9/10
5. Murray Street - 9/10
6. Evol - 9/10
7. Sonic Nurse - 8/10
8. Goo - 8/10
9. Confusion Is Sex + Kill Your Idols - 8/10
10. Bad Moon Rising - 7/10
11. Experimental Jet Set, Trash & No Star - 7/10
12. The Eternal - 7/10
13. Rather Ripped - 7/10
14. Sonic Youth - 6/10
15. A Thousand Leaves - 6/10
16. New York City Ghosts & Flowers - 5/10

I did a play through of the entire discography last month so I figure I'll play along. I'm gonna try to do this off the top of my head and it could probably change at any time, save for the first couple.

I'm ranking these in order of preference to me, so there's a different between "favorite" (which I'm doing) and "best". Anyway, here goes:

1) Dirty
2) Daydream Nation
3) Sister
4) Goo
5) Rather Ripped
6) EVOL
7) Washing Machine
8) The Eternal
9) Experimental Jet Set, Trash & No Star
10) Murray Street
11) Sonic Nurse
12) Bad Moon Rising
13) A Thousand Leaves
14) Confusion Is Sex
15) NYC Ghosts & Flowers