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Yo, great thread. I never want to ruin they're poetic fun by pulling the songs apart on this board, but this is a less hazardous endeavor.
Sonic Nurse was my first SY album (if we don't count soundtracks) and it seems a lot more interconnected than, say, Murray St (where each song darts off into totally different musical and lyrical realms than the last) or Washing Machine (where they seem to be trying on a number of 'modes' for size).
I feel that Pattern Recognition / Kim Gordon (Mariah Carey) and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream / Dude Ranch Nurse are a great trilogy of vaguely provocative feminist critiques that come across more like riddles than diatribes.
Also, Dripping Dream / Stones / Peace Attack are unified by their intensely organized musical passages and midsong 'breakdowns' as well as decidedly less excrutiating guitar-work.
It's impossible not to mention to more obviously interconnected NYC G&F, where we hear the words "Ghosts" "Flowers" and "Lightning" as lyrics to more than one of the songs, suggesting a puposeful interconnection.
Daydream Nation, by virtue of being so thoroughly unlike the rest of the albums, feels like a totally cohesive whole. It's tone of, god what is it?, educated innocence?, spans the entire record.
Finally, the unrepentant potency that crowds Experimental Jet Set... feels like another this-record-only, induplicable foray. Only time will tell if Rather Ripped is a similar detour or a whole new (Pacific Coast) highway.
In another way, all of each respective singer's songs constitute a constantly evolving 'thread' of Sonic Youth music. Listeining to a string of Lee joints together presents an irrefutable style that is bound more by approach and spirit than by any identifiable signature sounds.
I hope this hasn't been more rambling delirium than you can stand. Peace
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