Sonic Youth- NYC Ghosts & Flowers

To anyone who was following Sonic Youth's career trajectory, NYC Ghosts & Flowers wasn't quite the sudden controversy that all the negative reviews made it seem. They always had a predilection toward the avant garde and arty fartsy in general, and while this side was mostly kept in check on their main albums or relegated to side projects, you had to expect they'd eventually want to follow their muse someday. If, however, you were following their main albums--as a more 'casual' fan, though that's a loaded term--then I suppose NYC Ghosts & Flowers would appear to be an indulgent misstep.

I didn't hear this album until last year, and even given the things that Sonic Youth has produced since its 2000 release, NYC Ghosts & Flowers still stands out in their discography as an odd beast. Washing Machine and A Thousand Leaves were leading the band down the road of music that was simultaneously more minimalist/improvisational/psychedelic and also more experimental/noisy. Truthfully these things were always in the band's sound, but those releases drew them out further than ever. And while NYC Ghosts & Flowers would initially seem to pick up the loose ends of A Thousand Leaves and run with them, it simply does not feel or sound much like that album.

It helps to have some context, I think. In the summer of 1999, many of Sonic Youth's custom guitars, effects pedals, and other gear were stolen, meaning that NYC Ghosts & Flowers would be recorded with new and newly altered instruments. At the same time, beginning in 1997, the band had been releasing a series of works under the SYR banner. While mostly improvisational, studio outtakey, and long winded, the fourth of these, released in 1999, was a double album titled "Goodbye 20th Century" in which the band performed or reinterpreted the works of many avant garde musicians and composers from the 20th century such as John Cage, Yoko Ono, and Steve Reich. All of this leads one to believe that the band were ripe for an out there, bizarre album that would test even their long time fans. That the result, NYC Ghosts & Flowers, is as enjoyable and listenable as it is speaks volumes for how well Sonic Youth continue to make the inaccessible accessible.

Yet while I liked the album, I wasn't sure why. It took Robert Christgau to make me understand this album. Considered the "dean" of American music critics, I actually find Christgau's reviews to be totally worthless because of their flowery prose and occasionally pun filled self satisfaction. It's worth noting, too, that at one point Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth had a fight with Robert Christgau, but that's neither here nor there. What does matter is that his review of NYC Ghosts & Flowers helped me understand what was going on with this strange yet compelling album. He said of it: "...this impressionistic poetry-with-post-rock is the most avant-sounding of their DGC-etc. product, and either way its avant parts are more listenable--nay, beautiful--than anything on Washing Machine if not A Thousand Leaves." Which is actually true, even though I love those albums. NYC Ghosts & Flowers puts a premium on texture and lyrics-as-another-instrument rather than lyrics-as-a-way-of-conveying-an-idea. If the music seems occasionally too minimalist and flaccid or self consciously abstract/abrasive, if the lyrics can seem insipid, childish, or amateurish, well, then that's part of the risk.

The album begins with its most accessible song and ends on its most, well, inaccessible. 'Free City Rhymes' ripples into life with beautiful, plucked guitar note loops before a surprisingly groovey beat kicks in on the wheels of clean and clear reverb guitars and Thurston Moore's dreamlike mumblings take us on a trip through the city. This 'cityscape journey' feel will persist throughout the album even as we enter the dark grinding of 'StreamXSonic Subway.' Truthfully this is their most cinematic record even if it possesses a paucity of melodies or hooks. Even a more rocking song like 'Renegade Princess' feels more like a song the band might play during a punk rock show in a movie scene rather than the single their record label will release to push the album. 'Nevermind (What Was It Anyway)' is notorious in my mind due to the lyrics as trashed in the 0.0 review that Pitchfork gave it way back, but I've always had the feeling this whole album was done with tongue in cheek, and having the lines "boys go to Jupiter, get more stupider/ girls go to mars, become rock stars" is pretty damn funny when delivered by Kim Gordon. As for that final inaccessible song, well, 'Lightin'' does seem like a pointless indulgence, but its well in line with the things they had been doing on their SYR releases. Maybe I'm being too nice, but I think it's the perfect, "let's make some weird noises and have free jazz trumpets blurt out" ending to this album.

I should close this by making clear that while I like this album, it's no masterpiece, or even a hidden gem. It's simply a misunderstood work that has been unfairly derided and fairly praised on the exact same points. As Christgau pointed out, there are moments of astonishing beauty and languor that go beyond even those captured on Washing Machine and A Thousand Leaves. Anyway, NYC Ghosts & Flowers isn't a misstep but a sidestep, and a fascinating-but-flawed album from a band with a whole backlog of solid-to-amazing albums.