Free City Rymes is magic...That one note that keeps sustaining..

It also took me a while but when I got it wow...

I'm listening to the download now. It's not a bad recording and what's real cool is they did it as an instrumental.....

I like it. I like to think of it as an audio book with backing noise. Theres a story in there somewhere. Maybe not their strongest effort musically, but really stands out.

I hate it.

I like your point about it being a story, almost concept album. I get that feel too. Maybe all of the spoken parts add to that feel. The title track definitely is a climax to an implied narrative.

I agree with RanaldoNecro....Free City Rhymes is magic...and I love magic.

It's the most atmospheric, I think. It has an intangible brilliance about it. I can't put my finger on it.

It's pretty experimental and 'out there' too. I can't imagine it gained SY any new fans if they discovered them with this album. Again, thats a great thing. SY couldnt care less if they gained new fans (at that time?) - this was for themselves and the existing fans.

It's esoteric. It's the discerning SY fans' album. Its cool as fuck.

the bumbershoot recording trumps the album in basically every way, as far as i'm concerned. still think so 10 years later. still kick myself for fucking up the tape flip and missing the beginning of 'nyc ghosts'.

i had such high hopes for the material when i saw that show and listened to that recording over and over, it was so reminiscent of their early material, just totally broken down song construction with all kinds of 'odd' techniques to treat the instruments. the finished album, though good, captures almost none of that initial promise, and basically is what it is.

some great songs on there, most of which sounded better on the subsequent tour ('lightnin' in particular remains one of my favorite SY encore tunes, especially when they stretched it to 10+ minutes).

i'm not sure i'll ever be able to listen to this album and not feel a little disappointed.

well that sounded negative... i guess the finished recorded versions were just not mixed the way i'd anticipated. the vocals always seemed tacked on at an inappropriate volume to me. i'd really have loved to have seen those 8 songs released as an instrumental SYR or something... i'm glad people like it though! i will keep revisiting it to see how my feelings change w/ time...

would love to score the vinyl too...

i'd kill for that "Nevermind" 7"... or the "Lightnin'" 7"

Personally, I prefer The Eternal ... really

this album stands out on it's own

how about the "Free City Rhymes" 7"?

Fer reals? I'm still dubious about that Nevermind 7"...

Oh yeah, that Bumbershoot recording was where I first heard these songs, and I too have always thought they were way better than the final album (which I do like). Sounds like indonesian gamelan music.

i've always thought that too. Would love to here the live instrumentals