Matthew Stearns is a regular contributor to Resonance magazine. A onetime graduate student in comparative literature, he has also held down jobs as a seasonal construction worker in Alaska, black-market babysitter in Paris, bookseller, editorial assistant, and record store clerk.
Matthew Stearns is a writer of considerable moxie, possessed if a
thoroughly unhinged and seemingly endless thesaurus, and supremely
convinced of this album's majesty...After painting the scene for us
wherein the band recorded the album (hot New York summer, cramped
recording space, a legendarily experimental band at a crux in their
career and looking to expand, explosively if necessary) Stearns
methodically walks readers through the album itself. Song by song.
Line by line. Moment by moment. It's a revelatory construct,
particularly for a record as deeply layered in influences and
abstractions as Daydream Nation is. Along the way, Stearns gives a
helpful overview of the band members themselves (most of whom he
appears to have interviewed), annotating how their omnivorous
cultural feedings and art-school backgrounds created such an
ambition and uncategorizeable piece of work...Stearns' words stick.
Few writers could get away with lines like "We're all teenagers at
the mercy of rock's beauty and elan." Amen, brother.
*Pop Matters*
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