Dirty (studio album)
by Sonic Youth

Dirty by Sonic Youth
Year: 1992
Overall rank: 851st   Overall chart historyOverall chart history
Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 562 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution   Average rating historyAverage rating history
Accolades:
Award Top 20 albums of 1992 (13th)
Award Top albums of the 1990s (154th)
Award Top 1,000 albums of all time (851st)

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Sonic Youth bestography

Dirty is ranked 5th best out of 42 albums by Sonic Youth on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Sonic Youth is Daydream Nation which is ranked number 74 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 15,766.

Sonic Youth album bestography « Higher ranked (758th)
Evol
This album (851st)
Dirty
Lower ranked (1,626th) »
Washing Machine

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

Upcoming concerts

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20:00
Gimme Gimme Disco's New Years Eve (21+)
Irving Plaza Powered By Verizon 5G, New York, United States. United States
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Nov
11
Tue
19:00
hannah bahng: The Misunderstood World Tour
Summit Music Hall, Denver, United States. United States
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Dec
29
Mon
19:00
The Roots
The Magnolia, El Cajon, United States. United States
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Dirty track list

  Track ratingsTrack ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 79 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Track
Rating/Comments
1.
Rating: 85 (118 votes)Comments: View 2
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2.
Rating: 78 (80 votes)Comments: View 1
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4.
Rating: 79 (81 votes)Comments: View 0
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5.
Rating: 78 (77 votes)Comments: View 0
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6.
Rating: 81 (78 votes)Comments: View 1
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7.
Track pick
Rating: 88 (144 votes)Comments: View 2
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10.
Rating: 64 (71 votes)Comments: View 2
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11.
Rating: 77 (73 votes)Comments: View 0
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12.
Rating: 81 (78 votes)Comments: View 1
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13.
Rating: 80 (75 votes)Comments: View 0
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14.
Rating: 81 (77 votes)Comments: View 1
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15.
Rating: 76 (73 votes)Comments: View 0
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Track pick Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

Dirty rankings

Dirty collection

Dirty ratings

Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 562 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 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 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 562 ratings for this album.

Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
90/100
 Report rating
10/12/2025 21:52 LedZep  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 4,79879/100
 
80/100
 Report rating
10/07/2025 02:30 JacobMullis  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 72388/100
 
85/100
 Report rating
09/10/2025 01:18 JoshN125  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 21386/100
 
70/100
 Report rating
08/07/2025 19:37 Hyggevinyl  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 4,15472/100
 
60/100
 Report rating
08/07/2025 03:22 ScottJones  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 9284/100

Rating metrics: 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 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.1/100, a mean average of 77.6/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.5.

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Dirty comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 31 comments |
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Rating:  
60/100
From 08/07/2025 03:22
I don't care much for Sonic Youth's sound on this album. The noise, distortion, feedback or whatever is something I always found unpleasant from them, but their previous albums had a certain something, an edginess I guess, which made up for it. I don't find that to be the case here. Plus there are too many mediocre songs and too many tracks that go on too long without adding anything. Some of the more rock/grunge sounding tracks are alright, and there's some nice tunes such as "Sugar Kane", "Youth Against Facism" and a few others. I certainly preferred their previous few albums to this.
#310449 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
70/100
From 07/24/2023 22:54
Disappointment, I didn't expect another masterpiece like Daydream Nation, but Goo was much better than this one, it has maybe 5 songs really worth listening, the rest is either just ok or straight up bad.
#298328 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 11/09/2022 13:59
A bit of an up and down album in terms of quality as the best songs are scattered amongst quite a bit of filler but they do a great job in maintaining their style and atmosphere. Due to this the record feels very cohesive and so it is quite easy to just glide right through this record. The guitars are great as well and they always sound so unique on a Sonic Youth album and it is no different on this one. That edgy sound they create is fantastic also and it really separates them from the other artists in the genre. Overall, some classic Sonic Youth songs on here, such as Sugar Kane, but there is also quite a lot you can skip as it doesn't provide much for the record in terms of making it better.
#291168 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 03/08/2022 12:14
Sonic and noisy. Not my sound, but undeniable this has some genial values.
#282514 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 07/01/2021 23:31
Quality album. Sugar Kane is the real highlight, but Swimsuit Issue, Theresa's Sound World, Purr and JC are strong. too.
#271223 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 03/09/2021 20:36
One of my favorite SY albums not in the least because it has some of the best tracks of them: Chapel Hill. But that's not all: also 100%, Sugar Kane and Purr are amongst my all-time favorites and just behind are Youth Against Fascism and Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit.
#267132 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
70/100
From 11/28/2020 17:16
One of their weakest albums, although it's still good in some parts. This is the one album where Thurston and Lee's songs are better than Kim's. favorite song is Theresa's sound world
#261575 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 02/18/2018 19:12
Che i maestri Sonic Youth passassero alla cassa visto il successo ottenuto dagli allievi Nirvana era sacrosanto; lo fanno anche con classe, con lucidità e senza svendersi e quindi "Dirty" rimane uno dei titoli più preziosi della loro discografia. La loro solita furia ed il loro rumorismo sono solamente più imbrigliati rispetto al passato e più inscatolati in una forma canzone un po' più rigida del solito e così ne escono capolavori quali "Sugar Kane" o "Youth against fascism".
#208722 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 12/05/2017 15:32
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#202671 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -3 votes (0 helpful | 3 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 11/04/2017 05:16
Best Tracks: Genetic, 100%
#200667 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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Best Albums of 1992
1. Automatic For The People by R.E.M.
2. Rage Against The Machine by Rage Against The Machine
3. Dirt by Alice In Chains
4. Slanted And Enchanted by Pavement
5. Selected Ambient Works 85-92 by Aphex Twin
6. The Chronic by Dr. Dre
7. Angel Dust by Faith No More
8. Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos
9. Down Colorful Hill by Red House Painters
10. Wish by The Cure
11. Bone Machine by Tom Waits
12. Images And Words by Dream Theater
13. Dirty by Sonic Youth
14. Vulgar Display Of Power by Pantera
15. Harvest Moon by Neil Young
16. Core by Stone Temple Pilots
17. Check Your Head by Beastie Boys
18. Love Deluxe by Sade
19. Copper Blue by Sugar
20. Dry by PJ Harvey
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