Washing Machine by Sonic Youth

Washing Machine, Sonic Youth's ninth studio album, came out on DGC on September 26, 1995, hot on the heels of the band's turn headlining Lollapalooza. They cut it at Easley Studios in Memphis and produced it themselves with John Siket, who had engineered their two previous records, and the songs stretch out further than before, loose and open-ended, the guitars left to wander and find their own way home.

Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo spin their guitars into shimmering, tangled webs, Kim Gordon and Steve Shelley keep the ground moving underneath, and the whole thing peaks with "The Diamond Sea", a 20-minute ballad that's the longest track on any of their studio albums. Critics gave the record a warm welcome and singled out that guitar work, and "Little Trouble Girl" joined "The Diamond Sea" as a single.

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