Washing Machine is the ninth studio album by the American experimental rock band Sonic Youth, released on September 26, 1995, by DGC Records.

Band member Kim Gordon played with Julia Cafritz of Pussy Galore in Free Kitten, drummer Steve Shelley performed with Jad Fair in Mosquito, guitarist Lee Ranaldo played with free jazz drummer William Hooker and singer and guitarist Thurston Moore released his first solo album, Psychic Hearts.

[5] Washing Machine is the band's first album on which Gordon almost exclusively played guitar instead of bass, resulting in a three-guitar and drums lineup.

[4] Trouser Press remarked that the album contains musical references to the Shangri-Las and the Byrds and described its style as "[veering] between trance-guitar experiments and more concise statements.

[7] Although Gordon's lyrics on Experimental Jet Set addressed gender roles and stereotypes, her contributions to Washing Machine were considered more feminine and girl-oriented.

[8] The latter was described by David Browne of Entertainment Weekly as "a teen-pregnancy lullaby" and features vocals by Gordon and Kim Deal (of Pixies and the Breeders) along with other musicians.

The latter was co-written with Ranaldo's wife Leah Singer and inspired by a performance that the couple attended of riot grrrl duo Mecca Normal.

[4] Although it was originally interpreted as a tribute to Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Moore explained that the song is only about the emotional relationship between friends, with one of them being a drug addict.

[4] Retrospectively, Pitchfork described it as "the most Sonic Youth song you can imagine" due to its calculated yet unstructured notes, noise, and occasional and aggressive guitar whir.

[11] The fans are depicted wearing T-shirts that were sold as merchandise during that tour; early in 1995, the band was toying with the idea of changing their name to Washing Machine.

[9] Washing Machine was released on vinyl, CD and cassette formats on September 26, 1995, by DGC, shortly after the group concluded their stint headlining the 1995 Lollapalooza music festival.

[2] During the festival, the band previewed some tracks from the album in addition to playing several songs from Daydream Nation, Dirty, and Experimental Jet Set.

Washing Machine encompasses everything that made Sonic Youth innovators, and shows that they can continue to grow, finding new paths inside their signature sound".

[1] He also highlighted the song "The Diamond Sea" as the album's centerpiece, stating that it was one of Moore's "most ambitious excursions into pure sonic colors, textures, and tension".

[1] Writing for Rolling Stone, Tom Moon called Washing Machine "a sardonic, wise-ass, indulgent and totally captivating album", declaring that it was "anti-hook" and "disavows (and sometimes mocks) the conventional post-Nirvana wisdom".

[8] He highlighted Ranaldo and Moore's guitar interplay on every track, commenting that "they've developed an attack that is astonishingly intricate and jazzlike in its extreme flexibility".

[28] Los Angeles Times writer Lorraine Ali stated that the album "finds Sonic Youth taking no radical new steps but instead holding onto its original groundbreaking formula and watching the big pop world come to it".

[7] In a mixed review, Spin editor Erik Davis criticized the album for its aimless structure, stating that each of the band's members "wanders off in a different direction",[27] but highly praised "The Diamond Sea", calling it "a gorgeous tapestry buried in Washing Machine's uneven load".