Sister
by Sonic Youth

Album
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Sister by Sonic Youth
Year: 1987
Release date: 1987-06-01
Overall rank: 550th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
80/100 (from 658 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top 10 albums of 1987 (9th)
Award Top 100 albums of of the 1980s (85th)
Award Top 1,000 albums of all time (550th)

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Sonic Youth bestography

Sister is ranked 3rd best out of 43 albums by Sonic Youth on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Sonic Youth is Daydream Nation which is ranked number 75 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 14,686.

Sonic Youth album bestography « Higher ranked (488th)
Goo This album (550th)
Sister Lower ranked (777th) »
Evol

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Sister track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 84 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

Sort Sort by
#
Track
Rating/Comments
1.
Track pick (900 - 241 votes)
Schizophrenia
Average Rating: 90 (241 votes)Comments: View 4
2.
Track pick (870 - 168 votes)
(I Got A) Catholic Block
Average Rating: 87 (168 votes)Comments: View 4
3.
Beauty Lies In The Eye
Average Rating: 83 (133 votes)Comments: View 2
4.
Track pick (850 - 148 votes)
Stereo Sanctity
Average Rating: 85 (148 votes)Comments: View 3
5.
Pipeline / Kill Time
Average Rating: 82 (129 votes)Comments: View 4
6.
Tuff Gnarl
Average Rating: 84 (131 votes)Comments: View 1
7.
Pacific Coast Highway
Average Rating: 81 (127 votes)Comments: View 3
8.
Hot Wire My Heart
Average Rating: 79 (124 votes)Comments: View 1
9.
Kotton Krown
Average Rating: 83 (125 votes)Comments: View 2
10.
White Kross
Average Rating: 84 (128 votes)Comments: View 3

Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

Sister rankings

Sister rankings summary
Overall rank: 550th | 1980s rank: 85th | 1987 rank: 9th  Overall chart history
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings).Help Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 4 hours ago)

Sister collection

Sister ratings

Average Rating: 
80/100 (from 658 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 3 ratings for this album.  | Show all 658 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
100/100
 !		09/03/2026 02:17 xhitmanx  Ratings distribution  1,60475/100
 
90/100
 !		08/27/2026 23:07 Melway94  Ratings distribution  11883/100
 
100/100
 !		08/16/2026 15:56 SomethingSpecial  Ratings distribution  1,81982/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 79.9/100, a mean average of 79.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 80.0/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.8.


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Sister favourites

Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite  | Show all 98 members

Melway94
Iglou2981
jwalsh97
byuzak
mash
LosWochos
sageamagoo
VVNVR
rubkill
brent13

Sister forum mentions

This album has been referenced 82 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From BestEverAlbums 10/01/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5452): By LittleM1971
“Today's chart of the day Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s by LittleM1971 () 1. by (1989) 2. by by (1984) 4. (1980) 6. by (1988) 7. by (1985) 8. by (1980) 9. by (1986) 10. by (1988) 11. by (1983) 12. (1985) 13. (1989) 14. (1984) 15. by (1980) 16. by (1980) 17. by by (1987) 20. (1982) 21. by (1984)…”
View forum post →

From BestEverAlbums 09/29/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5450): By DeusExMackia
“Today's chart of the day Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by DeusExMackia () 1. by (1971) 2. by (1985) 3. by (1988) 4. by (1984) 5. by (1967) 6. (1987) 7. (1991) 8. (1996) 9. by (1976) 10. (1972) 11. by (1973) 12. (2016) 13. by by (2019) 15. by by (1972) 18. by (1979) 19. by (2020) 20. (1977) 21. by…”
View forum post →

From BestEverAlbums 08/02/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5392): By leniad
“Today's chart of the day Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s by ) 1. by (1989) 3. by (1984) 4. (1982) 5. by (1980) 6. by (1986) 7. by (1989) 8. by (1985) 9. (1980) 10. by (1984) 11. (1986) 12. by (1983) 13. by (1988) 14. by (1984) 15. (1983) 16. by (1989) 17. by (1989) 18. by (1982) 19. (1980) 20.…”
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View all forum mentions

Sister comments

Showing latest 5 comments | Show all 43 comments |
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
Rating:  
90/100
From 03/27/2016 01:48 | #162715 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
I would recommend listening to this before Daydream Nation, or you might be a bit underwhelmed. I listened to Daydream and found this a little lacking at first, but it eventually clicked. I still like Daydream a tad more, but this is still a masterpiece and Schizophrenia is better than everything on Daydream in my opinion.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 7
Reply
Rating:  
90/100
From 08/16/2018 20:12 | #219758 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
A savagely good record.

Sonic Youth's "screw you mom", flannel shirt wearing, ever-so-slightly-edgy teenage phase. More accomplished than previous works, but less monumental and less polished than what would follow, meaning it delivers that rough, bitter taste that made this era of SY so damn good in absolute spades.

It takes time and consideration to be appreciated, but beneath its raw, feedback-driven and strangely subtle overtone is a beautiful creation that strings together the last remains of punk and post-punk, with hints of alt rock and art rock, all of which is brought together in a tumultuous 40-something-minute record. Not an easy album to listen to, but one that - like much of Sonic Youth's discography - is extremely satisfying.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 4
Reply
Rating:  
100/100
From 07/10/2013 08:57 | #80915 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Holy goodness, I was not expecting this. What an amazing album. I'm gonna give it a few more listens, but I believe that this might be Sonic Youth's best album.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 5
Reply
From 02/04/2012 23:47 | #36454 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
This album is definitely a keeper, I sent my copy of the album slip cover to Thurston and he replied signing it, it said "To Christian love Thurston", what a cool guy
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 4
Reply
Rating:  
100/100
From 09/22/2013 23:10 | #86588 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Sonic Youth's 4th album, Sister not only continues where EVOL left off, it also gave a hint of where Sonic Youth were going musically. Even so, Sister also stands on it's own merits as one of Sonic Youth's best albums, with classic tracks such as Schizophrenia, (I Got A) Catholic Block, Beauty Lies In The Eye, & Tuff Gnarl.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 3
Reply
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Best Albums of  1987
1. The Joshua Tree by U2
2. Appetite For Destruction by Guns N' Roses
3. Sign "O" The Times by Prince
4. Strangeways, Here We Come by The Smiths
5. You're Living All Over Me by Dinosaur
6. Document by R.E.M.
7. Bad by Michael Jackson
8. Music For The Masses by Depeche Mode
9. Sister by Sonic Youth
10. Substance by New Order