# The Best Sonic Youth Guitar Solos

> The 16 best Sonic Youth guitar solos, ranked. #1 is Teen Age Riot (1988), then The Sprawl and 'Cross the Breeze. Every video starts at the solo.

Canonical URL: <https://greatestsolos.com/list/sonic-youth-guitar-solos/>

Sonic Youth replaced the conventional guitar solo with alternate tunings, prepared guitars and walls of feedback, and in doing so changed the vocabulary of alternative rock. The interlocking noise of Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo influenced everyone from Nirvana to modern shoegaze and noise rock.

Informed by: [Wikipedia - Daydream Nation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daydream_Nation), [Wikipedia - Sonic Youth discography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Youth_discography)

1. [Teen Age Riot](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-teen-age-riot/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo · 1988
2. [The Sprawl](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-the-sprawl/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo · 1988
3. ['Cross the Breeze](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-cross-the-breeze/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo · 1988
4. [Silver Rocket](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-silver-rocket/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo · 1988
5. [The Diamond Sea](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-the-diamond-sea/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Lee Ranaldo & Thurston Moore · 1995
6. [Schizophrenia](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-schizophrenia/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo · 1987
7. [Expressway to Yr Skull](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-expressway-to-yr-skull/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo · 1986
8. [Eric's Trip](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-eric-s-trip/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Lee Ranaldo · 1988
9. [Death Valley '69](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-death-valley-69/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo · 1985
10. [Kool Thing](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-kool-thing/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo · 1990
11. [Dirty Boots](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-dirty-boots/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo · 1990
12. [Sugar Kane](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-sugar-kane/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo · 1992
13. [Theresa's Sound-World](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-theresa-s-sound-world/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo · 1992
14. [Incinerate](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-incinerate/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo · 2006
15. [Bull in the Heather](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-bull-in-the-heather/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo · 1994
16. [Sunday](https://greatestsolos.com/song/sonic-youth-sunday/) — Sonic Youth · solo by Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo · 1998

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GreatestSolos ranks the greatest guitar solos by consensus across published lists. Agent guide: [llms.txt](https://greatestsolos.com/llms.txt) · [Sitemap](https://greatestsolos.com/sitemap.xml) · [Dataset (CSV)](https://greatestsolos.com/data/greatest-guitar-solos.csv) · [How we rank](https://greatestsolos.com/method/)