NYC Ghosts & Flowers

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NYC Ghosts & Flowers
File:NYCGhosts.jpg
Studio album by Sonic Youth
Released May 16, 2000
Recorded August 1999 – February 2000 in New York City, United States
Genre Noise rock, experimental rock
Length 42:18
Label DGC
Producer Sonic Youth, Jim O'Rourke
Sonic Youth studio album chronology
A Thousand Leaves
(1998)A Thousand Leaves1998		 NYC Ghosts & Flowers
(2000)		 Murray Street
(2002)Murray Street2002

NYC Ghosts & Flowers is the 11th studio album by American noise rock/alternative rock band Sonic Youth. It was released on May 16, 2000 by record label DGC.

Background

The album was a slight stylistic departure for the band,[citation needed] mainly as a creative reaction to the theft of their instruments while on tour in July 1999.[1] Irreplaceable guitars and effects pedals with numerous modifications were stolen. As a result of this theft, the members of Sonic Youth relied upon "old guitars in their studio, unearthing instruments they hadn't used in years" which "along with equipment purchased to fulfill the remaining [...] dates [of the tour], would serve as the foundation for six new songs written over the next month", in addition to "Free City Rhymes" and "Renegade Princess", which were written prior to the tour. The band members later acknowledged that "the gear theft was somewhat of a blessing, if not a rather unwelcome and unpleasant one, in that it truly forced them to 'start over' and approach creating music with brand new boundaries".[1]

Content

NYC Ghosts & Flowers was the first Sonic Youth album since 1985's Bad Moon Rising to extensively use prepared guitars, most notably on "Small Flowers Crack Concrete" (a file inserted over the neck pickup) and "Lightnin'" (a bicycle horn wedged under the strings).[citation needed]

On this album, the influence of beat poetry on the band was strongly evident: The lyrics to most songs resembled the beat style; Lenny Bruce and D. A. Levy were name-checked; and the cover art was based on a painting by William S. Burroughs.[citation needed]

Release

NYC Ghosts & Flowers was released on May 16, 2000 by record label DGC.[1]

A music video was released for the track "Nevermind (What Was It Anyway)". According to the band's official website, it was a proposed single that "never actually found its way into stores."[1]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 66/100[2]
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 2.5/5 stars[3]
Alternative Press 3/5 stars[4]
The A.V. Club mixed[5]
Chicago Tribune average[6]
Robert Christgau A[7]
Entertainment Weekly B[8]
NME 8/10[9]
Pitchfork 0.0/10[10]
Rolling Stone 3.5/5 stars[11]
Spin 8/10[12]

The album received an approval rating of 66 out of 100 on review aggregator website Metacritic, signifying "generally favorable reviews".[2]

Billboard gave the album a positive review and said it "either encapsulates Sonic Youth's most endearing or annoying qualities, depending on how one feels about the band and the spoken-word poetics from Kim Gordon."[13] Salon.com also gave the album a positive review and stated, "Even while there isn't a single song here that holds together from beginning to end, even as the music makes only itself felt in halting jigsaw fashion... the album has a gloomy, unaccommodating tenacity that's hard to shake."[14] Robert Christgau gave the album an "A" grade upon its release, though he later claimed to have misjudged it and came to view it in a less favorable light.[15] Mojo gave the album 3 out of 5 stars and stated: "In the end, it's surprisingly worth it for the few great, strange tracks."[2]

Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork infamously gave the album a grade of 0.0 out of 10, calling it "an unfathomable album which will be heard in the squash courts and open mic nights of deepest Hell." Commenting on the album's avant-garde roots, he said, "These are not new ideas. These are ideas that were arrogant and unlistenable upon birth thirty years ago."[10] DiCrescenzo later reevaluated his opinion of the album and, in 2013, remarked on the higher esteem with which he now held it: "I now love the record. It's unlike anything else; eerie and beautiful. [...] No, the lesson here is: beware the opinions of a kid right out of college." He also described Pitchfork's decimal scale as "knowingly silly" and "arbitrary".[16] Select wrote that "The songs suffer from a lazy approach and the relentless repetition of unengaging chord patterns."[2]

The Chicago Tribune said, "Though Sonic Youth flirted with alternative-rock songcraft in the early '90s, these noise-rock renegades are once again happily viewing their guitars as hunks of wood, wire and infinite possibility," adding, "No rock band makes the avant-garde sound quite this tactile and sensual."[6]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Sonic Youth (Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley). 

No. Title Lyrics Vocals Length
1. "Free City Rhymes"   Moore Moore 7:32
2. "Renegade Princess"   Moore Moore, Gordon, Ranaldo 5:49
3. "Nevermind (What Was It Anyway)"   Gordon Gordon 5:37
4. "Small Flowers Crack Concrete"   Moore Moore, Gordon, Ranaldo 5:12
5. "Side2Side"   Gordon Gordon 3:34
6. "StreamXSonik Subway"   Moore Moore 2:51
7. "NYC Ghosts & Flowers"   Ranaldo Ranaldo 7:52
8. "Lightnin'"   Gordon Gordon 3:51
Total length:
 42:18

Charts

Year Chart Position
2000 French Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique 61[17]
Norwegian VG-lista 37[18]
UK Albums Chart 113[19]
US Billboard 200 172[20]

Personnel

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Sonic Youth
Additional personnel
  • Jim O'Rourke – bass guitar ("Free City Rhymes", "Small Flowers Crack Concrete"), electronics ("Side2Side"), production, additional recording, additional mixing
  • William Winant – percussion ("Side2Side")
  • Rafael Toral – Spacestatic guitar ("Renegade Princess")
Technical
  • Wharton Tiers – recording
  • Greg Calbi – mastering
  • Frank Olinsky – sleeve art direction
  • Dan Graham – sleeve artwork (video still from Rock My Religion, 1980)
  • D. A. Levy – sleeve spiral drawing (1967)
  • Joe Brainard – sleeve painting (Flower Painting IV, 1967)
  • Robert Mooney – sleeve painting (untitled, 1992)
  • William S. Burroughs – sleeve painting (X-Ray Man, 1992)

References

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