I prefer it when the songs take a life of their own in their live versions, at least for bands with more free form songs like Sonic Youth. Pavement are a good example for that, because I really, really enjoyed their gigs the two times I've seen them, whereas on the other hand I can't listen to an entire album of theirs.

rather ripped is far way better produced than the eternal.......................

without a doubt the best sounding album they have ever recorded is DIRTY. and the fact that Chris Fucking Lawrence is of the same opinion pretty much speaks for itself. that album just teaches people how to sound good.

Butch Fucking Vig.
end of the story.

I just wish they had GENETIC in the tracklisting!

possibly the best produced rock album of the decade.
possibly.

RUDE AWAKENING by PRONG concurs.

Confusion is Sex

Dirty their best-produced album??? People, wash your ears.

1. Washing Machine
2. Confusion is Sex
3. Bad Moon Rising

My first thought off the top of my head without really thinking about it is Goo.

okay, following up on my comments earlier in the thread, i just heard 'the ineffable me' in the car and uh, it's pretty fucking awesome. and when i stopped to think about it, the album takes of 'french tickler', 'hits of sunshine', 'karen', 'snare' and 'heather' are all awesome, which is the entire back half of the record, so i think my problem w/ ATL after all these years is just a few less than optimal takes used on the first half of the album, namely 'female mechanic', 'wildflower', and 'hoarfrost'. specifically compared to the early live versions (actually with 'hoarfrost' i might be thinking of bits they added after the record, specifically lee's great delay parts before the "wheels paddle" section). still, 'female mechanic' and 'wildflower' are two heavy hitters on this album and i guess to this date i'm still not thrilled w/ their finalized recorded versions, and to be honest it's just parts here and there where i was spoiled by live versions.

fuck, what the hell am i trying to say? i still prefer a good '98 soundboard (lee's ring mod terror on 'french tickler' just screams thru the mix where-as it barely makes a roar on the LP, and numerous other things like that) but i suppose i should put a nail in the coffin which contains my contempt for ATL as a studio artifact.

also, 'dirty' fucking rules.

Gonna have to go with Nurse. It's just the best sounding record, thanks to Jim probably.

In my opinion there´s no Sonic Youth album that sounds bad, I think even the "heavy" sounds of Goo fit in the songs. But I like every album that they made in Sear Sound, because they sound so natural (Sister, Experimental and Rather Ripped). And ATL has also very warm sounds.

A Thousand Leaves is about the crispest sounding thing Ive ever heard. I was gonna mention the start of Hits Of Sunshine, but the whole thing sounds beautiful

Confusion is Sex.

And ATL. I like it soft and muddy. I tend to think of Washing Machine as so crisp as to be transparent. It's really well-mixed... actually, for most bands, it's a brilliantly produced/ mixed record, but it's not really why I like SY.

i think Sonic Nurse and Rather Ripped have the best production. i find the Eternal is too bass heavy and it drowns out alot of details in the high frequencies

Washing Machine would sound nice if it had better songs on, the title track and The Diamond Sea are particularly nice as individual pieces. But i dont think you can take their albums as they are if you have an issue with the engineering. Daydream Nation is the best SY album, but it was produced, if not terribly, at least very badly.

ATL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


and Nurse.

Ah. Yes. The production on Murray Street was flawless.

Washing Machine is great!
 

I love every song on Washing Machine. As a matter of fact there´s is no Sonic Youth song that I don´t like at all. Well, I need a certain mood, when I want to listen "In the Fishtank". How music sounds is also important to me and one reason, that I like Sonic Youth so much, is that they don´t have an album, that have creepy modern sounds.

1) Sonic Nurse

2) ATL

3) NYCG+F

Would really like to see Jim O do some more production work with/for them in the future. I miss Jim.

:(

the irish leprechaun era

i mean, whatshis

jim o'rourke

you may not have liked the wilco direction in which he influenced the music itself, but the recordings were fucking great.

Yeah, totally. I miss Jim as well.

I think A Thousand Leaves, Murray Street and EVOL are the best produced ones. EVOL's production really fits the mood of the album.

Dirty is the worst produced.