“Daydream Nation” by Sonic Youth

It’s the 35th anniversary of Sonic Youth’s star turn, a watershed moment for noise-rock.

Every decade, a select few records go beyond delivering exceptional music and changing listeners’ conceptions of what can be done sonically. They blow the doors of genre conventions and write new rules that become the golden standard for years afterward. Less than six months after Public Enemy changed how hip-hop records were made in 1988, Sonic Youth changed how the American underground sounded with Daydream Nation**.** The group wasn’t a total unknown before this release, with 1987’s Sister gaining critical acclaim despite what you might charitably call a chaotic, unforgiving approach to alternative rock. But, on Daydream, they put it all together, expanding their collective palette without losing the spark that made them one of the continent’s most original-sounding bands. It’s undoubtedly one of rock’s most impressive caterpillar-turned-butterfly moments.

Best known for the guitar interplay between Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, the use of alternative tunings, attacking frets with screwdrivers and drills, and layer upon layer of mind-melting distortion effects are only part of the winning formula here. Kim Gordon’s bass work, humming over top of Steve Shelley’s breathless drumming, is seriously underrated, enhancing tracks like “Rain King” and “The Sprawl” with undeniable grooves. Co-producer and engineer Nick Sansano, who’d worked with rap luminaries such as Ice Cube and Run-DMC, deserves credit as well for giving each player enough room in the soundscape and preventing a song like “Teen Age Riot,” joyous as it is, from devolving into a muddy, impenetrable mess.

35 years later, this album hasn’t lost any of its dizzying, borderline unhinged brilliance.