Sonic Youth new album "Rather Ripped"

wtf are you talking about?

Rather Ripped = 51 minutes
Murray Street = 46 minutes
NYC Ghosts & Flowers = 42 minutes

i was with you through "brilliant" and maybe even through "songs," but "contre le sexisme" is easily one of my most-skipped tracks ever. in my head, 'ATL' starts with "sunday" (and is one of my fave SY albums from then on).

what are the 2 bonus tracks called?

I've listened to this in its entirety twice now and I like it. Someone further up the thread mentioned how immediate it is and I agree - these songs stick in your head.

Can't wait for the December All Tomorrow's Parties now...

After sitting with this thing a week (I held out for actual release), I'm really liking it.

Yes. Catchy, memorable, and quite good. A real treat.

I'm not following the person who says without the 2 bonus songs it would be 40min etc. It is 51min without those songs, and the bonuses make it longer, right?

I Love Rather Ripped. Gets better every spin.

That said I am looking forward to seeing them in Seattle next week.

heh, I think that was Sonic Youth's intent with this album.

Yeah, it's their most sugary & addictive album to date, definitely.

Built To Spill seems like they tried a "hey, let's make a BTS album" with Ancient Melodies From The Future.. however, something really annoyed on this album...

OTOH, Rather Ripped does anything but annoy.

Nothing wrong with that, just kind of "meh" when expecting Sonic Youth.

Of course, I've been kind of apathetic to them for the past decade, so please take that into consideration. Some people liked YLT's "Summer Sun" as well. To each their own.

damn how did i miss that?

I was thinking about it and Sonic Youth are kind of the indie Rolling Stones - had a solid run that helped define an entire sound, and then are routinely lauded with "return to form" critical response, regardless of the general indifference to the album a few months down the road. They consitently get 4 star reviews, only to have those same "masterpeices" mauled in a future 4 star review (revisionist thought on "NYC Ghosts & Flowers" is a prime example). The Stones, from Steel Wheels on, have also had that same universal addulation and retro-mediocrity cycle. Both are still very solid live acts - I try to see Sonic Youth when I can, even though I haven't particularly cared for anything after "Experimental Jet Set".

SY really needs to get some better oldies in the setlist before I see them in August! I'm super glad that they are doing "Brother James" regularly since that is the #1 song on my list of SY songs I've never seen live, but jeezy creezy can they just give "Drunken Butterfly" and "Eric's Trip" a rest finally?

I can't think of any major critic besides Christgau who lauded NYC Ghosts & Flowers

"NYC Ghosts and Flowers finds the quartet exploring rock's outer limits with renewed zeal. The album expands on the autumnal pensiveness of 1998's A Thousand Leaves."

and:

"NYC Ghosts and Flowers comes as a reminder of not only how far Sonic Youth have traveled but how high they can still reach."

Matt Hanks wrote in his Amazon review:

"Sure, you could say that NYC Ghosts & Flowers is the group's best record since Daydream Nation--what's a new Sonic Youth album without such an assessment?--but to do so would deprive them of their greatest achievement. No longer fashionable or influential, Sonic Youth persist in the strength of their own passions. They matter to themselves. To hell with everyone else."

Maybe "NYC Ghosts" is the exception that proves the rule (though I seem to recall horrible panning like Pitchfork's as more the exception than the rule) - the general path of "best since Daydream" and then irrelevancy is strikingly strong.

But I'm an old-school SY apostate - I was disappointed by Goo and Dirty (I stand by an old statement that "Youth Against Fascism" is the most horrendously embarrassing thing they have done or could ever do) and just don't see the need to be completist with their work. The last 15 years or so they have put out a series of good albums that I see absolutely no need to own or listen to on more than a perfunctory level.

It seems the fate of most acts that extend beyond a decade or so - they have such a defined sound that infintesimal variations on that are what any subsequent albums devolve towards.

I'm not clear as to how this can really be a "stage" unless you mean "the stage where they make one last great album and then start to suck ass"

-- San Diva Gyna (and a Masala DOsaNUT on the side), June 22nd, 2006.

Nice reasoned response. I listened to this album, as I've listened to every SY album, with the hope that it will grab me like it did oh so many years ago. I haven't given up on the band at all - like I said, I still see them live when I can. Just because I think they are repeating themselves with minor variations doesn't mean I don't like them.

What a sad state of affairs when you can't comment without following some party line - I'll give it a try: "Rather Ripped rather rocks! NY Times & Klusterfuck and Hornsby sux. XGAU XGAU XGAU!!!!"

Can I play now?

note the WHINE tags i put in there for comic effect.

i was actually making fun of the discourse of the old-timers vs. new-timers at the expense of the new timers this time, even if i'm sorta in both camps, and i have no idea why you threw in XGAU XGAU XGAU, but whatevs.

The XGAU bit was just aimed at the tired old canards that seem to be the primary stock and trade of this message board. My own weak attempt at humor.

I'm an old-timer who wants to be rejuvanated - I SO want to be blown away by each and every SY album, and instead come away accepting that what they're doing, though very well done, has none of that ol' pizazz. My loss, most likely.

alb is ok, too

But "Super Horny 19 Year-olds" is a great album title.

and now everyone knows why i work at a university. you know, for the "benefits".

[chillax dudes, im totally joking.]