NYC Ghosts & Flowers Does Not Suck!
 

so i kinda get the hint that alot of people don't really like that album. i gotta say it's one of my favorites. to be honest i'm not really crazy about much stuff before EVOL, cept for the self titled record. i'm probably gonna get shit for that statement, but imma stand by it. so what do you kind sir's & ma'am's think?

You'll find that most people on this board are Sonic Youth fans and love NYC G&F. It is certainly SY's worst selling Geffen album, and those sages at Pitchfork gave it one star, but if everybody "got" what Sonic Youth do, then it wouldn't be the world we live in. Perhaps it would be a better place, or maybe actually less interesting, I'm not sure.

I'd put NYC G&G tied with Washing Machine and Nurse for my fave Geffen albums. All three are among my all time favorites, though quite a few notches down from Bad Moon Rising, which is really the band's ultimate musical statement.

Totally agreed (except that NYC Ghosts & Flowers is definitively my favorite Geffen album, also with Sonic Nurse, Washing Machine, and I'd had A Thousand Leaves too, but NYC G&F is far better in my opinion)

I think almost everyone ranks it amongst their best "after-Goo" work

Everyone here anyway. It's also the album that most of the world just didn't notice. Even my wife was hitting me with the old, "They haven't done anything good in years" line until I made her actually listen to it, and now it's one of her all time favorites.

yeah, sometimes it is my favourite album although it's far from perfect. i find small flowers crack concrete to be basically unlistenable.

Yes it does.

wouldnt strictly agree on that point but i love nyc g&f. small flowers is a great song too. the only down point on the album i think is lightning.........

i was disappointed with the finished product compared to the great early (bumbershoot/knitting factory) performances of the songs, i just couldn't believe they took such dark, broken songs and made them so .. futuristic. but years later i can appreciate that it's a good record. the best of their post-goo work? not by a loooooong shot.

I can't stress enough how much I adore this album and NYC G&F (the song) live is the best thing I've ever seen live till now. ha!

You're not alone (I'm not a big a fan of Confusion is sex/Kill your idols and Bad moon rising while I really like the S/T).

Regarding NYCG&F the album I hated at first (except for the title track). I should give it new listens (as I haven't listened to the album enough for it to grow on me).

They gave it a zero :D, and to be honest after my first listen I would nearly have agreed with them...

When did I say it was their best work after Goo? I said it was AMONGST their best. As in, a group of albums that are really great that it happens to be apart of. A Thousand Leaves has it beaten! That album is their crowning achievement of the past decade and a half.

see, and its only lately that i've been able to appreciate 'a thousand leaves' despite all of the ways they fucked up the songs in the studio vs the fantaaastic live versions. maybe one of the reasons i liked 'nurse' so much is cuz i stayed away from live versions of the songs prior to its release, and effectively had a whole new album the day it arrived on my doorstep.

at least they got it right w/ 'murray street'. hopefully one day they finish that album!

huh... and i was under the impression that nobody really liked this album. well fucking a!

I think the title track is Lee's crowning achievement in the band.

i think it's a tie between nyc ghosts & flowers and mote... then again lee can do no wrong in my book, i always whish he'd have more songs on their albums.

on the old board, nyc ghosts and flowers the song won "Best sonic youth song of all time"...

i'd cast 'karenology' or 'karen koltrane' alongside 'nyc ghosts' for lee songs of the past decade.

the 'nyc ghosts' tour was a fun one, w/ the addition of jim and watching the old songs slowly creepy back into the repertoire post gear-theft. the 'nyc ghosts' tunes got even better live, w/ the title track especially being the highlight/climax of the set, getting longer as the tour progressed. of course, a good 14-minute encore of 'lightnin' was always my personal highlight...

I respectfully disagree. Free City Rhymes is the best song on the album.

I couldn't agree more. the guitars on "Free City Rhymes" are the most beautiful SY has produced since Washing Machine (like Unwind). NYCG&F would be a flawless album if it wasn't for Renegade Princess. The lyrics are incredibly corny, the guitars are cool, but the lyrics just ruin its potential.

Agreed on that one too, but I don't think it alone stops the album from being flawless.

This thread is almost as popular as the HSBC or U2 threads.

how the hell?
I don't see how anyone can have anything other then a mystification and total love of NYC G&F. It had straight profetic poems, a 3d painting by William burroughs and a sound that was ultra moderen. How can anyone not be in awe of such a presentation of pure art?

And WOW. I just watched the lyricless video of free city rhymes thats posted on front page. AMAZING! It's so loose and free. Such a subtle color for a state of consciousness.

when this topic has come up, i have always had to say that NYC G&F is my favorite album of all time.

so, i've said it again.

i have the vinyl version even that has different song order. that's how much i love it.

inspired me to start making music again after a two-year self-imposed dry spell.

s.

:confused: You disagree with the choice of the song or with the fact ?

Choice of song. Haha, how could I disagree with a fact?

its my favourite and i love this album, fell in love with it straight away etc. you all know this.

i have a lot to say about this album, but all in all, found it disappointing. The vocals and sometimes dodgy lyrics "boys go to jupiter, get more stupider" really let it down. Of course, Lee's title track is awesome, one of the best songs SY have ever done, and I Think small flowers crack concrete starts off really cool but is let down when kim comes in and they start chanting stuff. ORourkes production is wonderful, the guitars chime beautifully , and musically, this album is not too bad most of the time. But I feel a lot of the songs start off well but deteriorate as they go on... Perhaps I need to listen to it even more.

yes, yes you do. i sentence you to listen to it on repeat for a month. no excuses or whining.

i just purchased this cd. i had it downloaded before, but never really went out of my way to buy it. it's a good album though. it's the last official sonic youth album that i had to buy to complete my collection of all thier albums.

Yeah, man this album is so good. Free City Rhymes is such a good song.

On another note, I just started listening to EJSTNS again and i love it. Before, I thought it was ok but now I really love it. I don't know why so many people hate it. I think Thurston's vocals on this album are great too. The ony thing that I think is wrong with it is that it has no Lee songs.

ok. it is being done.

NYCG&F is good to me, but not GREAT. Coutn me in among those who have never found any love for EJST&NS. Boring record, worst thing SY ever put out, IMO.

For Geffen Era work, I prefer Sonic Nurse, Thousand Leaves and Goo over NYCG&F.

NYC Ghosts & Flowers is probably the cultiest album from one of the cultiest bands around. I think many threads on this website have hashed it over, I know I have at least three times, and I've only been posting for a year. That's what is most strangely enduring about it: the ambiguity of whether it's unspeakably awesome, interestingly novel, or embarrassingly silly. We can all sit around and wank over The White Album or Blank Generation, but no consensus exists on this artifact. I think this strange limbo in which it floats is utterly crucial to our reception and appreciation of it. But honestly, the textures, the rhythms, the monochromatic shards, how could you not love this if you love Sonic Youth? The title track is still probably their illest thing ever, and it's totally not rock and roll; more like jazz really.

i'm listening to it right now. it's on side2side

s.