Sonic Youth: Sister [GOOFIN']

Why you'll love it

This Goofin' reissue comes with a double-sided insert, a postcard and a download code. Several publications have since named Sister one of the best albums of the 1980s.

This edition

• Download card included
• Insert and postcard

About the album

Sonic Youth spent the early 80s making glorious noise in downtown New York; on Sister they started writing songs you could, at a push, hum. Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley wrote most of it on the road after EVOL, then cut it in March and April 1987 at Sear Sound in Hell's Kitchen with house engineer Bill Titus, all on 16-track tape and analog gear.

The album leans loosely on the life and books of Philip K. Dick, and the title nods to his twin sister, who died in infancy and haunted him all his life. "Schizophrenia," which Moore often introduced on stage as "Sister," opens with a hazy shimmer before the guitars bloom, "Stereo Sanctity" and "Tuff Gnarl" crackle, and "Pipeline / Kill Time" gets a lift from the studio's Moog modular. "Hot Wire My Heart" covers San Francisco punks Crime, and "White Kross" closes things in a blur.

It's where the band's noise and their pop instincts finally shook hands, and it set the table for Daydream Nation the following year. Working titles included Kitty Magic, which would have looked lovely on a T-shirt, but Sister was the right call.

Also at Kops: more Sonic Youth on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Goofin' Records (cat# Goo 020), a reissue of the 1987 album.