Daydream unbeliever

With Sonic Youth's new album Rather Ripped due to be released next week, it was timely that, in a recent On Second Thought piece on Stylus, Ian Mathers should give his personal take on the band's 1988 classic Daydream Nation.

As someone who thinks it's their masterpiece (though Dirty runs it very close - perhaps partly on account of it being the first Sonic Youth record I heard), I can't agree with Ian's assessment - but the vitriol and abuse he's received as a result (see the comments box) is incredible and utterly unjustified. Of course music critics should be able to take shots at sacred cows - I may not like what Ian has to say, but I'll defend his right to say it. The whole idea of the feature is for someone to give a personal take on an album - it's always going to be more personal than the regular album reviews - so why then complain about it?

I can well understand that annoyance at feeling you "should" like a certain band simply because it's what's expected - after all, I've never really "got" The Pixies (amongst others) and am constantly faced with disbelieving faces when I confess it. I'm not sure whether that wouldn't change if I was exposed to more of their stuff, but, as Ian says, there does come a point when you realise that no matter how often you listen to something, or how often people tell you how amazing it is, you just don't like it.