finally- my rather ripped opinion
 

after reading a silly amount of reviews for months, i can finally put my two cents forwards in the debate. i love it. its great how, as soon as noise is getting big and popular, they completely ignore the trend, and continue moving in the direction theyve been going for a while, and make a pop record. some of teh pieces are just sublime- do you believe in rapture far surpresses anything that i could have imagined from early acoustic mp3s. Whilst it is true that it is distinctly lacking in (for want of a better term) noise, the songs are strong enough to hold the album up anyway.

NO!

The more I've listened to it the more experimental bits I've noticed. Althogh the pop-ness is what hits you first, Turquoise Boy has a nice, Tunic-esque bit of noise, and Or is pretty out there apart from the melodic vocal.

RATS RULES

yea Rats is rather awesome

Doctor Dan -- I picked up this disk on opening day last Tuesday. I have listened to it three or four times, and I love it. It is not the same as any record that they have released in the last many years which makes it fresh and exciting. Whoever said you can hear new bits of noise amongst the pop upon each listen is right. Everytime you hear Reena, for example, it makes you groove harder each time. I love it.

My best testimonial for the album is that I can't wait to hear it again on my way home from work.

My personal faves are: Reena, Or, Jams Run Free and Sleepin' Around.

Great Job SY!!!

it's ok... still probably my least favourite thing they've released... people always talk about experimental jet set and NYC G + F as the worst but I prefer those over Rather Ripped.. I'm hoping it will grow on me though as it seems a shame to ruin an otherwise near perfect discography this late in the game..

i agree with that...i think rather ripped is...boring (there's a couple of good songs, but the whole album is not that good). i thought that probably i could change my mind after listening the DC gig...but i'm disappointed with that show and with the new album...

there are experimental elements for sure, but it seems like theyve tried to encompass them intot he song structure, such as the tapped strings on or, and the sparse harmonics on do you believe in rapture (the best rack in the album imho).

The whole album rips it up. It is fantastically delicious. Kim's tracks are the best she has had since shadow of a doubt and beauty lies.
RATS is the SHIT! It is a great fucking album, and I have listened to it at least 10 times now, and each single time I am struck by how complete;y perfect it is, how well it fits into their discography, how much they have explored the jangle tones, the skronk is bstill beautiful, the very beginning of sleeping around,a nd the break in the middle, are as imaginatively skronky as anything they ahve ever done.

It's their pop album. Like Dirty was their grunge album.

Just picked up Wire magazine with the Sonic Youth interview. (I don't normally buy this mag but I had store credit to burn up...). Thurston says they wanted to make a pop record like Blondie did with Parallel Lines, only, unlike Blondie, they wanted to do it right.

The more I listen the more I pick up on noise elements they sort of hide beind the pop clean-ness. That's what makes the album interesting for me. It has layers.

This album is fantastic! I love it! I agree with Mr. Instigator that Kim's tracks are definitely the best she has done for quite awhile. I can't wait to hear the RR tunes live in Lawrence! :)

I get to rock the show TONITE!!!!

Awesome color opens up. psychedelia and sonic youth. I AM SO PUMPED UP!

i am way too shy to post another rr thread since we have tons of them here. i reall y find the album exciting. really nice vision of pop music, if pop could be put around the name of SY. it was funny for me to see how the youth made an album where not even one songs goes crazy at one moment ( i call these noise moments 'when they forget to play the riff'). they somehow caught the noise elements in a poppy song structure which is new to them. thats why i say good work becuz it seems to be a new challenge for SY. they did something like that in diRty, but still far more unpolished. to say rather ripped is polsihed tight piece of work seems to me allright. it's brilliant at some moments (jams run free, lights out) when simple riffs and unisons makes the song sound catchy both unexpected.
some may call it shit becuz there is not classic SY weird ass noise for 13 minute in the middle of the songs, but i think they wanted to do it like that to see if they actually could do it. + it would be stupid if they try to sell us all the same tricks they know we like. would be like they have lied or sth-definately not something i could say about rather ripped.
the only weakness of this album is they don't tour nowhere near where i could afford going to.
being american is a privilege (sp?), damn it.

" it would be stupid if they try to sell us all the same tricks they know we like. "

I could not have said it better myself shentov. are you detractors listening?

My favorite song is Pink Steam beautiful guitar work !!! Rats is great and I love Kim's vocal in TBoy.. it's great work SY .. Kim said in an interview Thurston had the album pretty much pulled together and was going to do a solo project with it but instead decided to make it an SY project, glad he went that direction with it.

To anyone else who doesn't like it, to fuck with what anyone else thinks, this stuff about how it is not as good or whatever crap they keep trying to puke out about it, blah blah blah.. I say don't listen it to it if you don't like it, who cares!

I love it myself and that's all I care about and I'm glad to see so many other long time true SY lovers think the same as myself.. but then we always Get what our SY brothers and sister are doing... bravo.. sonic love to you all. :)

nobody could say it better. 10x!

not a track on the album i don't like. a few of there previous albums have had songs that are a bummer (may i bring up My Friend Goo.. cool music, no doubt, but the lyrics are... less than satisfactory.) and drag the album down from utter perfection, or something like it. but on rr, i can get thru it all without an eye roll at a lame lyric, and they have got the pop record, with the right amount of noise to keep it sonic. not to mention kims vocals are the best shes done in all the yoof's years in my opinion.

oh, come on! "my friend goo goes P. U." ??