Review Summary: This is the album that Pitchfork loves to hate. Why they hate it so much is not apparent to me. Well, ok I can see why they dislike it, but there’s nothing to hate about it. It still has those signature long Sonic jams...
I bought this album six months ago just after my 15th birthday, and I wasn’t disappointed.
This album was made right after Sonic Youth had their gear stolen. Guitars which were not able to be replaced, due to the high amount of tweaking done to them. In a hurry, Thurston, Jim and Lee stocked up on Jazzmasters, Jaguars, Mustangs and Tele Customs, guitars that did not have the same amount of modifications as their previous ones, and would have taken a while to get used to. The guitars on this album sound a little different, which is a good thing. Thurston, Jim and Lee were able to coax some sounds out of their new gear, sounds that haven’t been present on their previous albums. So before you judge this album too harshly, remember that this is the first album with legendary experimental artist Jim O’Rourke and that they were using new gear, so naturally their sound would have changed a bit. Now, let’s press play.
We are introduced to the album with
Free City Rhymes which starts with some intense guitar playing that builds and build and deteriorates, and then a calm melody is played over the sound and goes into one of my favourite songs by Sonic Youth. Thurston sings calmly, and this section of the song is very relaxing this then builds, and the tension rises again, and the song just breaks down in such an awesome way. The guitars start churning, and start sounding like a train passing in the subway and Steve just goes nuts on the drums. The whole song has a very “city” feel to it, and finally is reduced to a section that sounds like the start, unfortunately (as it is the first track), this is probably the best song on the album.
Next, we hear some simple guitar strumming, which is joined in by Thurston singing. This song is
Renegade Princess, and isn’t all that bad. The start can be a little boring, but it progress well; the drums kick in with a running beat, and Kim starts singing. The song then continues to build tempo and slowly becomes louder, and Thurston and Kim are now singing together. Then, the song moves onto being very loud. Steve is pounding the *** out of the drums and the guitars are being strummed rather quickly. The song then crashes down; the guitars start droning, and the bass is being played at random moments. The ambient guitar noise is swirling above you, and then slowly fades away.
After the swirling end to Renegade Princess, the album now picks itself up, dusts itself off and continues with some chords being strummed in a recognizable rhythm, which is the beginning to
Nevermind (What was it anyway). Kim starts singing in time with this rhythm, and the song continues on into somewhat of a chorus, where everything is playing much louder, and Kim sings some very childlike lyrics that sort or irritate you (Boy’s go to Jupiter/ get more stupider/ girl’s go to mars/ become rock stars). This comes right back to the quieter part of the song, with the bass and guitars chugging like a train while another guitar is creating a very insect like noise. This is another pretty cool song, which so far makes three out of three.
Small Flowers Crack Concrete kind of ruins this though, with beat poetry that has a lot of good meaning, but the title track pulls off the mix of poetry and music much better than this song does, making this one somewhat redundant. There is singing in this song, of some kind of way. Thurston and Kim start singing together, and the rest of the band slowly gets louder, and the guitars moan away, and yet again, the mood is very intense, and returns to Thurston continuing the poem, with a lot of crackling and bubbling guitars playing over him. It’s an ok song; the guitars save the song from being a throwaway.
After Small Flowers Crack Concrete finished,
Side2Side starts, with a chugging and rhythmic, single guitar note (it sounds more like tapping on a metal bar). This continues throughout the whole song, and Steve adds some cymbals. Kim just says a few words which switches from left speaker to right speaker, and occasionally sings “sway side to side”. It sounds boring, but it kinda like this song, it sounds very similar to Flower, another Sonic Youth song from their early stuff.
We hear some clucking guitars at the start of
StreamXsonik Subway, which can get very repetitive. Thurston kind of half sings and talks over the noise. So far the song is sound annoying, but it then builds into a jam, with whooshing guitar effects over the top. I’m not really a fan of the song, the jam is the only thing stopping me from skipping it.
Now for the title track (
NYC Ghosts and Flowers), which is the longest track on the album. It’s good to finally hear a Lee song, and he pulls off the monologue much better than Thurston does on Small Flowers Crack Concrete. The bass and guitars compliment his voice well, and Steve provides a nice, easy beat. The song gets nice and suspenseful, and Lee starts singing over the guitars, which are progressively getting louder. Steve starts rolling on the cymbals and the song is getting very uptight.
Lightnin’ isn’t really a song, just Kim singing over a whole lot of strange noises. Guitar strings are being scraped to sound like frogs, and some kind of weird effect I just can’t put my finger on, there’s even a trumpet. This is definitely a filler song.
Overall, this is an incredibly underrated album. It follows well from where A Thousand Leaves left off, and Murray Street continues well from this album. It may only have eight tracks, but fortunately, the best songs are the longest ones. However, this album will certainly scare off people that are new to Sonic Youth, but it will please those who are well acquainted with them. 3.5/5 overall, but once this album grows on you it’s 4/5.
