Sonic Youth - The Diamond Sea". MTV. Archived from the original on July 6, 2014 . Retrieved July 6, 2014. Kind of an underrated album in the SY canon, but it just might be my favorite. It's nothing they haven't done before, and I'm not sure what to make of the spoken-word song "Skip Tracer," but there are a lot of brilliant moments here. What do you make of the, by now, completely expected but sexually primal vocals of Kim Gordon? They're an acquired taste to be sure.

Kot, Greg (September 29, 1995). "Sonic Gold". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 . Retrieved June 26, 2016. Though not executed quite as extremely as on the previous 2 albums, Lee and Thurston's guitars are once again isolated to their own speakers -- Lee is in the left, Thurston is in the right. Say what you want about Kim, who gives the band substance, and Lee who gives the band consistency and at least one great song an album, Thurston Moore is the heart and soul of this band and gives the band every single ounce of coolness that emanates from The Diamond Sea, and Washing Machine. a b "Washing Machine". Dutchcharts.nl. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012 . Retrieved July 14, 2014.Jenkins, Mark (October 13, 1995). "Looking Up To Sonic Youth". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 1, 2019 . Retrieved June 4, 2018. The final movement begins with the crash and burn guitar chord at the end of Untitled and Skip Tracer sees a wonderful introduction to the great Diamond Sea. Washing Machine is the follow-up to Sonic Youth's 1994 DGC album Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star. [1] After Experimental Jet Set, the band decided to take a hiatus from performing live and concentrated on numerous side projects. Band member Kim Gordon played with Julia Cafritz of Pussy Galore in Free Kitten, drummer Steve Shelley performed with Jad Fair in Mosquito, guitarist Lee Ranaldo played with free jazz drummer William Hooker and singer and guitarist Thurston Moore released his first solo album, Psychic Hearts. [1] Moore and Gordon also had their first child, Coco. According to Moore, their daughter had provided a different perspective for the band: "I'm more focused and level-headed. There's a sublime awareness factor of your spiritual place in the world. I feel more at ease with myself... Babies are little Buddhas. They're completely great". [1] The 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. February 20, 1996. Archived from the original on March 25, 2014 . Retrieved June 22, 2014. Recorded between Jim O’Rourke’s departure and Mark Ibold’s arrival, Rather Ripped is perhaps the only one of Sonic Youth’s late-period albums with Kim Gordon primarily on bass guitar. And it has held up well as the most popular and immediate album of the band’s last decade, with propulsive yet melodic songs like “Incinerate” and relatively few extended instrumental passages. “Dig the way SY’s oddly tuned guitars chirp and chime where they used to gnash and grind,” wrote Tom Sinclair in an Entertainment Weekly review that compared the album’s sound to The Byrds.

a b "Sonic Youth". Australian-charts.com. Archived from the original on February 25, 2012 . Retrieved July 14, 2014. Washing Machine is the continuation of Sonic Youth’s 1994 Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star. After the Experimental Jet Set, the band decided to make a hiatus from performing live and focusing on several side projects. Moore and Gordon also had their first child, Coco. According to Moore, their daughter provided a different perspective for the band. a b "Washing Machine - Awards". AllMusic. Archived from the original on June 7, 2014 . Retrieved June 7, 2014.a b c d e Davis, Erik (December 1995). "Sonic Youth: Washing Machine". Spin. Vol.11, no.9. pp.118–119 . Retrieved June 7, 2014. This brings us to the obvious question: why would a band at, or near the apex of its powers and prowess, want to become a different entity – and one with no history or expectation? It is a sad fact of life that even a history of achievement and innovation can result in tremendous amounts of pressure, and that even circumstances that are objectively good do not always guard against a profound ennui. Sonic Youth had a desire to escape those burdens even as they were fully coming into their own. Whether the desire was half-joking or half-serious, they saw a need to change things up. Washing Machine gave them the chance to evolve from a band viewed as mostly ‘punk’ to one that was considered mostly ‘indie’ in sound if not in label affiliation. a b c Scott, Grand; Miles, Barry; Morgan, Johnny (October 2008). The Greatest Album Covers of All Time. Collins & Brown. p.196. ISBN 978-1843404811 . Retrieved July 6, 2014.