Sonic Youth new album "Rather Ripped"

"A Thousand Leaves" is the every defintion of "crappy Photoshop job".

does surrealism own the copyright on images of the human eye or something? I think you're bringin' your own baggage to the table g

Well, haven't they made a point of having different artists do the covers of the records rather than repeating the same people?

Sister has a great cover.

I actually think NYCGF was one of their better covers, not that they have many great ones. (S: Daydream Nation).

ha! tis true ... again, scott makes me happier.

Goo
Daydream Nation
Experimental Jet Set Trash and No Star
Dirty
Evol
Sonic Nurse
Sister
Confusion Is Sex
A Thousand Leaves
Rather Ripped
NYC Ghosts and Flowers
The Whitey Album
Murray Street
all of the SYR records in a tie, though I like the red one best
Bad Moon Rising
Washing Machine
Sonic Youth EP

beta--was kim gordon a total ice queen when you were eating olives with her? or was she nice to you? i got the chance to hang out with sonic youth backstage once, maybe four years ago. kim was very distant and basically ignored me, thurston was nice enough, jim o'rourke (guess he's not still in the band) was friendly, and i didn't see much of steve. the nicest person in the band was lee ranaldo, who even offered to write my wire article for me when i was feeling stressed out about it. i saw him some other time at a gallery and had a funny conversation with him about "le corbusier concrete lollipops" (i still have one somewhere, in a box!)

thurston gave me an impromptu lecture on strange old improvisors when i 1st met him...but they have all been quite nice to me when i have met them. & xpst

I see M. Perpetua posts here, august company indeed!

I've never ever ever heard of any anecdote involving Lee in which he was anything less than super nice and awesome.

only member of the band I've met was Steve, a few times, including an interview, and he's definitely a nice, low-key bro.

I always keep hoping that someday there's a Sonic Youth album where Lee does a full third of the singing.

the only good ones are Daydream, Goo, Sonic Nurse, and Evol. Sister and Bad Moon were alright on vinyl but the detail is lost on CD. the other covers are all worse than this one.

I always thought it was sort of a funny twist, too -- usually the concert t-shirt has the cover of the album on it, whereas here the cover of the album has the concert t-shirt on it. I'm sure everyone who bought the shirt in summer '95 assumed that when the album was released a couple months later, it would just be the logo from the shirt on that solid blue background.

yeah, that has been the word on the street

Jaymc has a really good point about the album/t-shirt reversal, and now it's making me like the cover more again.

the Jet Set cover is debateable, but if we're talking about the whole packaging, I did like that goofy thing they did where it was a bunch of different cards instead of a booklet in the CD case with alternate covers. I used to shuffle it to a different cover all the time, usually the b&w one of Steve or the one w/ Kim over the green background with the horse.

Brainwasher started a thread on this after me and it got locked, however that one included the tracklisting which I think we should do now, since we're talking about the cover...

01. Reena
02. Incinerate
03. Do You Believe In Rapture?
04. Sleepin Around
05. What A Waste
06. Jams Run Free
07. Rats
08. Turquoise Boy
09. Lights Out
10. The Neutral
11. Pink Steam
12. Or

And I am also enthused about the "more Lee stuff" rumour. An album of songs like "Skip Tracer" or "The Bridge" would be just peachy by me.

Recorded at Sear Sound Studio, additonal ovedubs at Murray Street studio, J Mascis Studio, produced by John Agnello

Album inspired by Blue Oyster Cult, Rembrandts, NBC comedy series Freaks and Geeks (last 2 probably a joke, or even blue oyster cult is a joke also )

Kim Gordon - 5 songs,
Thurson Moore- 6 songs,
Lee Ranaldo - 1 song

Jim o'Rourke left the band

Rather ripped has 12 songs + descriptions:

01. Reena (sung by kim gordon)
02. Incinerate (sung by thurston moore, a propulsive song, a song kinda like teenage roit)
03. Do You Believe in Rapture? (sung by thurston moore
04. Sleepin' Around - (sung by thurston moore, previously called sonic mirror)
05. What a Waste - (described by Kim/Thurston's daughter Coco as a rip of from Friends series theme song of Rembrands)
06. Jams Run Free
07. Rats (sung by lee ranaldo, blends a dark bass grove with thick sheets of guitar, whatever that means)
08. Turquoise Boy (sung by kim gordon, a gentle song dirtied up with bursts of noise at its conclusion)
09. Lights Out
10. The Neutral
11. Pink Steam (Sung by thurston)
12. Or (Sung by Thurston)

Quotes:
Lee Ranaldo:
"Some of it seems to be an extension of the last couple of records, but some hearkens forward into territory and also back to earlier, more dissonant and atonal stuff we've done. There's definitely some rocking songs and also some sound piece-y kind of things that are pretty interesting as well."

so maybe the "more lee" rumour is wrong?

Out of curiosity, can you post a track list/sequence? I just made a quick Lee Ranaldo vs. Sonic Youth playlist (ordered chronologically) to listen too while reading this thread and I think it plays through pretty nicely:

In The Kingdom #19
Lee Is Free
Trilogy
Wish Fulfilment
Saucer-Like
Skip Tracer
Karen Revisited
Paper Cup Exit

I didn't have a copy of "Mote" off of Goo, or I would have stuck it in after "Trilogy".