Rekall Yr Idols

Comments (0) By Luc Sante Tuesday, Jun 27 2000

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Sonic Youth
nyc ghosts & flowers
Geffen

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Their lyrical, meditative aspect has been increasing of late, and their famed tripartite structure (melody-chaos-melody) is barely in evidence here. I guess Thurston Moore is the voice on "renegade princess" and "streamXsonik subway," the two most egregiously rockist numbers—which isn't really saying a whole lot. The structure of "princess" is, roughly: Martian court music/punk rock!/guitars merging with the ebbs and swells of the ocean. Lee Ranaldo seems primarily responsible for the moody Sprechstimmeof "free city rhymes," "small flowers crack concrete," and the title tune. That German word means "talk-song," and it's the literal case in the latter two: The vocalist is telling you something, or telling himself, woolgathering, now and then breaking into song, against a continuo of rising and falling chords. Of Kim Gordon's three trips to the spotlight, only "lightnin' " echoes—in a meditative kind of way—the skronk'n'blap of her items on A Thousand Leaves. By contrast, "nevermind" and "side2side" are as catchy and finger-popping as anything on the platter, while characteristically seeming magically assembled from cardboard and pocket lint. I almost hate to say this, but it's a lovely disc—lovely like a violent abstraction in creamy pastels.