Eliminator Jr.
Daydream Nation is the fifth studio album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released on October 18, 1988. The band recorded the album between July and August 1988 at Greene St. Recording in New York City, and it was released by Enigma Records as a double album. It would be the band's only release on Enigma, as they would sign with Geffen Records for their next album.
After the release of the band's previous album, Sister, the band moved from SST Records, feeling concerned about payments, distribution, and other administrative practices. The album represented a move towards longer songs emblematic of their improvisations while live. This, in addition to Thurston Moore's writing spree, would result in the album expanding into a double album.
Pulling from pop culture sources such as William Gibson and Joni Mitchell, the album combines long improvisations, excursions into noise, and faster, poppier melodies, completing the band's evolution that had begun on their third album, EVOL. This new direction is exemplified on the opening track, "Teen Age Riot", one of the band's most popular songs.
After Daydream Nation was released, it received widespread acclaim from critics and earned Sonic Youth a major label deal. The album was ranked high in critics' year-end lists of 1988's best records, being voted second in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop poll. Daydream Nation has since been widely considered to be Sonic Youth's greatest work, as well as one of the greatest albums of all time, specifically having a profound influence on the alternative and indie rock genres. It was chosen by the Library of Congress to be preserved in the National Recording Registry in 2005.
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