I love NYC G&F...it's my favorite SY album of this decade so far. Like a modern day EVOL to me (which it's probably tied with as my favorite SY album). I think Sonic Nurse is also great (I've always preferred it to Murray Street) but it and NYC can't really be compared. Two totally different directions...

hell yeah! somebody brought back one of my old posts.

it's an okay album. not my favourite. when i rated it before i rated it pretty harshly i gave it a 3/10 but ive listen to it since so im changing it to a 7 much better than before.

I read that Pearl Jam's "Binaural" was released 15 years ago today, and remembered that "NYC Ghosts & Flowers" was released the same day.

I tell ya..this album has grown on me like no other in their catalog. I remember being disappointed when it came out, having been so familiar with live versions of the new songs and expecting the album to sound a certain way. 15 years later (!) it sounds fresh and wild, and looking back I'd say it was certainly a turning point in their career.

NYC blew me away.. i LOVED the record from the first listen. It is a good "headphones on the Metro" record..and i agree. Its a turning point toward my favorite sonic youth direction, the 98-2004 period

same.

love it. got see them for the first time when it was released and felt like I was abducted to another world.

when those drums or maracas kick in during Free City Rhymes its a ride. prefect record and not too long.

yeah I meant maracas. damn!!! im sick

Yeah Free City is gorgeous.

Really? 15 years? I really remember the day when I bought it. My father-in-law had a crawfishparty and he drank me too much vodka (had a terrible hangover next day). I think I listened it first time in that hangover day, I don´t know did that affect, but I didn´t like at first at all. For the years listening I have also grown to love it like other SY-albums, still not my favourite. Yes, it was a kind of turning point, from the experimental albums they started to go towards melodic albums after NYC Ghosts.

Damn. This was the first album of theirs I bought when it came out (got into SY around 1998 when ATL was already out). I remember listening to it really loud with a kind of reverence. Definitely not one of their strongest efforts but it still has a particular sonic atmosphere, as do all of their records.

AAiiii. 15 years. I was in Paris when this got released so I bought it there. Fuck, it doesn't even seem that long ago.

Anywayz, great record, always been baffled by the unfavorable reception some gave it. A couple of the tunes have wack lyrics, but whatever.

wow like me. I mean I had various songs I liked by SY but I got into them for real right around the time SYR4 was released, so I was buying their back catalog and NYCG&F was the first SY album I got as a new release.

when i heard for the first time. I thought was an ok album, not brilliant but ok (in fact i expected more cause the title album sounds like a tribute to their home new york...i thought that way)
But like experimental jet set, or rather ripped, are albums who need time to grown the feeling of "i love this album".

I read from the Chris Lawrence site "Eddie Vedder joined the band on E-bow guitar for their performance of "Lightnin" in Memphis" - i would loved to see this.

instrumentally this record is fucking immaculate, and the vocals for the most part are good excluding thurston's affected beat sneer bullshit, but the lyrics are almost totally indefensible. overall though it's one of the best, their second last inarguably classic record.

There's a nice ipad app, Metamorphabet, done by the wonderful guys at vectorpark with an interactive alphabet. You thouch the screen, the letters change/get animated etc etc. here's a screencap of what happens with the letter G when all the transformation stages are done.

G-> Guitar, Garden (with flowers), Ghosts.

first Sonic Youth album I listened to, 11 years ago now. definitely stayed in my top 3 since :)

The lyrics have never been SY's best asset but then I never listened or cared about them. This record is great for all the reasons that don't involve lyrics. Sometimes you hear, without coming across as patronising, hopefully, to some great combinations of voice with sounds. The best example I've ever heard was this casual thing on Resonance Fm where the voice kept on disintegrating itself in ever more inwards ways and it was someone just talking stuff while being recorded. Some lucky person with a bit of imagination and a someone talking in front of them. Not saying SY don't take their lyrics seriously, I have no idea, it's likely they do, but to judge this record because of the words alone compared to some of their other records would seem unfair. Also, I don't remember why I've quoted your post now.

Yeah, lyrics have never been their strength but in the 80s and mostly in the 90s their lyrics were more vague and opaque, which served the band well. I'd rather hear about a cocker on a rock, or something drifting in the distance, or she being not alone, than Mariah on fire, boys going to Jupiter, or something about Lou Reed/Patti Smith/Allen Ginsberg, or Goo having a new tattoo.
As their lyrics became clearer in meaning they became overall more something to circumvented.
This only applies to Kim and ThrustOn

The third Sonic Youth album I bought as a new album upon release. At first, I was honestly a bit confused by it. I think at the time it was perhaps a bit too "experimental" for where I was coming from. That said, as I became exposed to more of their back catalog, as well as albums by other "experimental" (<a term I usually hate when describing music) artists, it slowly began to grow on me. I do think, aside from "A Thousand Leaves", it contains some of their best lyrical content. It always seemed to me, as was likely the intention, that this album relied heavily on lyrics as the one instrument that wasn't stolen before the release of this record was their voices. It's wildly poetic, even if Sonic Youth + it's members are not some of the strongest poets in the world left to their individual devices. It was the band "starting from scratch" at least to some degree. It really is a gorgeous album. It stands alone in a positive way when compared to the rest of their work, if only because nothing else in their catalog is quite like it.

t&b gets it. everything became quite heavy-handed in terms of the message, a sort of over-confidence in vocals to the point where they reached the same level as the music which should never have been the case. not in terms of their aesthetic value in the case of kim but the lyrics themselves, ie what a waste can be fucking offensive but kim's voice is great in it. thurston, though, started trying way too hard around goo, ego definitely got the better of him, and not only did his lyrics largely descend into shit, so too did his voice become infuriating, so rockist/blokeish. lee though, I love you lee.

if you take thurston's vox off this record entirely then I think it'd be perfect.

Wow.. i actually liked condescending prick version of thurston on this record.. what would free city rhymes be without him?

Yes i agree that lyrically its near ATL in power and indeed ATL is possibly Sonic Youth best lyrics of any record. It is also definitely a new beginning as it was the first new record after getting all their gear stolen here in LA in 1999.. the structure, style, and sound of this record reflects how it was written, on acoustic guitars. I think getting their shit stolen was a blessing in disguise as it forced the band into a new, more "traditional" direction.

They started writing new material on acoustic guitars which forces you to be more conventional, traditional, and musical in approach. The wild experimental tunings were replaced by more near standard tunings. They also built on a lot of open chord tunings similar but more elaborate than on ATL.. indeed i often play all the music from 98-2004 perios on my solo acoustic when jamming on the porch.

I think this transition is why its my fav sonic youth era

The Title track is easily one of my ALL-TIME fav Sonic Youth songs. While some might gripe that is overly pretentious or "arty", I've always found it to be ambitious and a fitting bridge between what preceded and followed...

The title track might feature the best noise jam of any SY album

you jam SY on the porch too. that's awesome!!!

Yes!I actually covered "Stones" when I was in a "porch blues" band a few years ago.. I LOVE to jam Nurse or ATL tunes on my acoustic :)

cool!! everything from Murray to Eternal sounds good on acoustic.

I think i said this a couple times on here, but seeing that song live during the Goodbye 20th century tour is still among the best live music experiences I ever had. jaw dropping. noise.

no sucking dick today? too bad. maybe tomorrow.:cool:

im going to hate murder you!!!!:fuckyou:

are you done harassing me you pig fucker??????:fuckyou:

ill come here everyday I can to insult you. yr the worst!!!!

ahhh fuck, this is why sweeping statements don't work kids. :eek: :mad: :(

It was your statement yo

Used to hate this record, but over time it really grew on me. Has a vibe and style all its own. Free City Rhymes is one of my favorite SY songs.

I feel like WM-ATL-NYC or ATL-NYC-MS are some of their more creative albums in succession that both reinvented and defined who they were as a band.

I've never found Thurston's voice blokeish, and I don't have any problems with vocal delivery on NYCG+F, I actually really like T's vocal delivery on the album.

again a shitty generalisation from me, blokeish isn't even the right word, but that snarl he adopted around goo really grates on me, streamxsonik subway makes me feel sick sometimes. not entirely sure this is the right word for what I'm thinking but he seems almost insincere in these types of tracks?

I think you put it well here. I would not have picked up on what you were meaning with "blokeish" either, but describing it as his "snarl" makes perfect sense. I know exactly what you are talking about now, and totally agree. Never been a fan of it myself.