So I Finally Heard Rather Ripped
 

I found the spot in my front yard where my laptop picks up the wi-fi so I streamed the Rather Ripped, and must say I am rather impressed. it is a progression in ways, but in no way a let down, which I was fearing minus jim.

i've only sampled a few songs, i'm still kinda waiting to pop my rather ripped cherry on june 13th. but the small amount i've heard i have enjoyed, can't wait to pick it up!

after listening to it some more, yes it is in fact a very good record. its not as readily accesable as nurse was, but a good record with some good sonic jam moments. thanks sonic, for streaming the legit version

That's a pretty good assessment. I've listened to the album multiple times, the first time I thought it was a watered down version of their older material, but a few listens later, I think of it as a progression, and you can still hear their old style in there. Especially on pink steam.

Rather Ripped > Anything since Washing Machine

I think it's better than Sonic Nurse, songwise. Nurse had a wicked groove, Rather Ripped is pure song bliss.

with the exception of a thousand leaves, i'll agree with you

i've noticed we share similar, repeated sentiments

murray street is without a doubt the most boring sy record.

i still haven't heard that streaming, can't wait for an album. i heard new material only in live versions...soundz good. i just saw (dvd) sonic mirror performance from flywheel and it's fantastic

while goo is one of my least favorite sy albums, i meant what i typed

I personally like it more than A Thousand Leaves because it's shorter, more straight forward and the songs are much more diverse as a whole. A Thousand Leaves has songs way too long and drawn out(longer does not mean "better") and alot of the songs sound too similar. I like variety in songs.

NYG&F was their worst album by far but is not in any way a "bad" album...just SY's worst effort to date. Murray Street was better than NYG&F, but not as good as Nurse. That's understandable since by the time Nurse came out, Jim was more comfortable with the band.

But, this is just my opinion. I like Rather Ripped because:

1. Shorter songs-I tend to gravitate to the more shorter song albums which is why I prefer everything from Washing Machine and before over the anything after Washing Machine. A Thousand Leaves was a period where they changed their format and had songs that were much too long IMO that kinda killed some of the songs. I do like Daydream Nation and that had some long plays, but it also had more action and aggressiveness in their songs that made the long plays more interesting.

2. Variety-alot of the songs are just so different from eachother but you get a sense that they do have association to eachother. Do you believe in rapture is very different from Incinerate and The Neutral. I just think overall, SY did a great job making the song variety and sound stretch the spectrum.

3. Melody-it's the reason why I rate SISTER as my all time favorite album by any band and why I will always love the pre-A Thousand Leaves era SY.

4. Aggressive guitar action-I love things with power and straight to the point with SY. There are bands that I love that make music that takes time to start(like Califone/RRM, The For Carnation, tons of others), but that isn't what SY really are about. They finally get back to having fun on guitar and you can tell that Thurston & Lee just have a great language between them.

That's SY's formula. It's why Rather Ripped sounds very classic SY...because they abandoned their more recent approach to songwriting and got back to what they were good at: aggressive mean but melodic guitar with great hooks and short songs.

Sorry all, I just dont agree! I had very high hopes for Rather Ripped, but it really let me down. I thought that some of the musical ideas were good, but they seem underdeveloped. Like it's not all it could be. It falls a little flat. NOt necessarily a bad record, but not a ll that great. Knowing SY and there determination towards more noise, this is a more melodic record in the veain of Sonic Nurse and Murry Street, but in my opinion no where near as good. Sonic Nurse was a great record. Lush, beautiful music. Very "full" sounding. Rather Ripped seems empty. Maybe it's just me, but I can only get throguh part of the record before I have to turn it off. The only real track that reminds me that I'm actually listening to Sonic Youth is Rats by Lee, who is dangerously almost nonexistant in this record. I wish he could contribute more to each album, especially this one, cuz it really needs that kind of experimental strength that only Lee can pull off.

That's weird kingcoffee because SY haven't been "known for noise" since Bad Moon Rising. EVOL was melodic, SISTER was melodic, Daydream Nation might be the only "unmelodic" album after Bad Moon Rising. Goo was melodic, Dirty was melodic, EJST&NS wasn't really very melodic, Washing Machine was melodic, A Thousand Leaves wasn't, NYG&F wasn't melodic, Murray Street "tried" to be melodic, Nurse was melodic.

As far as I remember, SY have been about melody and that's exactly what they did with Rather Ripped. I don't quite see the Nurse or Murray ST comparison. Have you heard their album GOO or DIRTY? You'll hear alot of GOO(especially from TUNIC & CINDERELLA'S BIG SCORE), but I don't hear anything that reminds me of Nurse or Murray Street.

You don't have to be sorry either. It's your opinion, dude.

That's exactly what I think. I've got more confidence in Rather Ripped now after reading this thread(I'm waiting til it comes out)

Hmm, I don't understand that. Sure A Thousand Leaves had some long drawn out songs, but it also has Snare Girl and Hits of Sunshine, two of the best vocal melodies they've ever written, surely

Well, it had melody, but the songs were just really drawn out and tiring. Some of those songs could've been better edited and cut down by atleast 30%.

But then again, IMO A Thousand Leaves was all about atmosphere... Guitar bleeps and textures, culminating in a soundscape that is tethered to a song structure. IMO.

I'm really looking forward to it from what I've heard(Reena, Incinerate, Sleepin Around) and parts of other songs. The only thing that goes on too long for me on ATL is Hits of Sunshine. I still love that song though.

It's good. It grows on you; like all Sonic Youth releases it's bound to grow on me even more in time. I can't wait for the disc, but in no way is it better than Sonic Nurse.
That's crazy talk.

Then again, Rather Ripped is "better" in one aspect. It's better to play for neophytes that get bugged out by extended noise & it's more listener-friendly in general.

Rats would have been better on Sonic Nurse than Paper Cup Exit which would most likely sound better on Rather Ripped. Similarly, Kim Gordon & the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream would have perhaps been better suited for inclusion on Rather Ripped. Kim Chords would also fit into the new album well too as a dynamic change-up in texture. But you can't trace time & those tracks had Jim on them, & as we know, he isn't in the band anymore.
In most respects, I am sort of glad he's gone though.

It's better than Sonic Nurse in certain aspects, I think. Maybe not overall a better album, that's too far-fetched, but I personally think that in the composition of the songs and the melody underlying each song, Rather Ripped has a sizable advantage. Whether this is due to Jim O'Rourke's absence is not entirely clear, but I'm sure it has, to some extent, an influence. I am implying the melodies and composition of Rather Ripped are more tightly focused and brought to the forefront more than on Sonic Nurse, which to me, focused on a rock groove atmospheric specifically, not to say that the songs on Nurse were sloppily composed, of course; far from it. It's just that with the lack of Jim O'Rourke's lush production; Rather Ripped has a more tune-y feel than Sonic Nurse. This might or might not be better, depending on where you stand.