Daydream Nation (Dlx Ed) (Rm) [Original recording remastered]

The essential New York rock band of the post-punk era, Sonic Youth care as much about the quasi-symphonic, microtonal art-guitar music of composers like Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca as they do about the rock-song form, and with Daydream Nation, they struck their greatest balance between the two. The songs hover gorgeously for extended lengths, letting guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo intertwine fragile tonalities as carefully as it's possible to do at wall-shaking volume, while Moore and bassist Kim Gordon's untutored voices disaffectedly intone words that flirt with pop stupidity, high-art eloquence, and urban cool. When they bear down and rock, they do it with a blurry intensity that finds gorgeousness at the heart of discord. --Douglas Wolk

Hailed by Rolling Stone as one of The 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time and honored as one of the first 200 albums chosen by the Library of Congress to be included in the National Recording Registry for their historic, cultural or aesthetic importance, Sonic Youth's DAYDREAM NATION (Geffen/UMe) will be issued in a two-disc Deluxe Edition with bonus tracks, new liner notes, and unseen band photos on June 12, 2007. DAYDREAM NATION was Sonic Youth's sixth album, their first double LP, and their last for an indie label before signing with major label Geffen. Widely considered to be Sonic Youth's watershed moment, DAYDREAM NATION catapulted them into the mainstream and proved that indie bands could enjoy wide commercial success without compromising their artistic vision.Disc One features the original 1988 album, remastered under the band's supervision. From the anthemic Teen Age Riot to Eric's Trip, Total Trash, Candle, and Cross The Breeze, DAYDREAM NATION contains some of Sonic Youth's best known songs. Disc One closes with a bonus home demo of Eric's Trip.The Live Daydream Disc Two, comprised largely of previously unreleased tracks, features 15 live performances from the band's Daydream Nation Tour. Culled from performances at CBGB's in New York to The Paradiso in Amsterdam (and several others), Live Daydream includes live versions of every song on the original album. Added to that are four studio bonuses: Within You Without You, a Beatles cover from Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father an NME-sponsored charity Beatles tribute album, Computer Age from the critically-acclaimed Neil Young tribute album The Bridge; Electricity from the Captain Beefheart tribute album Fast And Bulbous, and a cover of Mudhoney's Touch Me, I'm Sick, originally released as a Sub Pop 7" single.