Hits Are For Squares

Hits Are For Squares first appeared in 2008, a career compilation with a twist: the tracklist was chosen by famous fans, each picking a favourite Sonic Youth song. The title is a joke at the band’s own expense. Sonic Youth spent most of the ’80s on SST and other independent labels, signed to Geffen in 1990, and never had a hit in any conventional sense. The 2024 Geffen vinyl reissue brings the compilation back to the label that bankrolled their major-label decade.

As an entry point it does its job. The songs that gave a generation of musicians permission to retune their guitars are here, alongside the more melodic material from Goo and Dirty that came closest to the mainstream. The band’s method stays visible throughout: Glenn Branca-derived tunings, Lee Ranaldo’s drones, and Kim Gordon’s deadpan. The lineage behind it, from Tony Conrad through John Cale and the Stooges, is the thread that ties this record to the Krautrock records elsewhere in the collection.