you have to put it in full context, though. christgau fucking adored sonic youth....
Iznogud95
He adored them from Daydream Nation onwards. Up until then, I don't think he gave them anything higher than B-, but I might be wrong...
deathtokoalas
he gave confusion is sex a c+ (and it's a difficult record that he clearly didn't understand), but everything else got a positive review.
Confusion Is Sex [Neutral, 1983] C+
Bad Moon Rising [Homestead, 1985] B
Evol [SST, 1986] B+
Sister [SST, 1987] A
Daydream Nation [Enigma/Blast First, 1988] A
Goo [DGC, 1990] A-
Dirty [DGC, 1992] A
Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star [DGC, 1994] A
Washing Machine [DGC, 1995] A-
A Thousand Leaves [Geffen, 1998] A+
NYC Ghosts and Flowers [Interscope, 2000] A
Murray Street [DGC, 2002] ***
Sonic Nurse [DGC, 2004] A-
Rather Ripped [Interscope, 2006] A
The Eternal [Matador, 2009] A-
jack h
What's your favorite Sonic Youth album?
deathtokoalas
hard question. there's a few really good ones. i'd put sister, daydream nation and murray street together as their trilogy of canonical, essential discs. the syr1 is also essential. but there's several others worth mentioning. they faded a little at the end, and the early 90s grunge phase is a weak point in my opinion, but they have a remarkably strong discography, given it's size.
