your definition of experimentation is not what we are dealing with here. if someone plays noise for twenty years and decides to try melody, that, TO THEM, is experimentation. I do not refer to the sounds produced, but the creative process.

and they did release SYR6 did they not? just a few months ago? is that not "experimental" enough for ya?

I REALLY liked NYCG&F when it came out. Maybe two years later I realized I didn't like it nearly as much. Don't hate it by any means. Still listen to it every once in a while.

Anyway, you're all right. Sonic Youth probably should not break up. I've realized that, even though RR is really depressing to me, it means a lot to a lot of people, and I guess that's what matters (?).

if you've been listening to them from 10 to 24, have you ever thought maybe your tastes are just changing? bands grow and change at the same rate we as individuals do, and you either grow together or grow apart. i grew at a different rate than the chili peppers - love their old stuff, am bored by their new stuff, but i know people who hate the old stuff and love the new stuff. i had the opposite experience with ween, as they grew and changed in the same direction i did. as long as there are people to love the new stuff out there, you can't really blame the band. and you can only do experimental so many times before it's not really experimental anymore. i didn't read the whole thread to know if anyone else had a similar opinion, but that's mine.

i like rather ripped. it doesn't drive me the same way sister or goo did when i was 15, but music in general doesn't quite stir up those same teenage emotions - you just can't recreate that feeling. there are plenty of real "youth" at sonic youth shows today, which is cool as fuck to see. and i assume they're digging the new stuff, especially if one of the newer albums is their first sonic youth album.

i feel your sadness. just find another favorite band. in a few years you'll do a whole new sonic youth renaissance and rediscover them and you may love this "new stuff" by the time it becomes "old stuff."

Rob Instigator, Rather Ripped is FAR form a masterpeice. Yes, it does have some hooks and some decent melodies, but it is not all that interesting engaging or really good. It's a so-so record. Like a C+ or MAYBE even a low B- if you really want to be gracious. 3 1/2 stars, tops.

Masterpiece it is not. i agree with that, but I find it to be a very strong record, and great songs.

it is two hundred times better than EJST&NS!!!!

That's ridiculous! Experimental Jet Set is hands down their most underrated album. I never understood people dissing it.

Definitely better than Goo and Dirty...combined!

word uP! that album is awesome! i hated it when i first bought it. but then now when i listen to it i am amazed every time! it's a more of a departure from the sonic sound then most of there albums (not a bad thing, either way) and it doesn't get too un-sonic, its fantastic! it, like every album on the planet, ahs its weaker songs, but there isn't a song on the album that i would say i don't like.

And "Sweet Shine" is a beautiful closer.

It is the one album of sonic youth's whose existance I deny. it is sooooo BORING

daydream nation has no weak songs baby!


cross the breeze may be the single greatest un-sung classic in sonic youth's repertoire