I love Obner.

This is at least the third thread in the last six months were there was a serious discussion on a point of ethics.

It probably is a generational thing that I even ask the question...

I'm resisting as well. They are my favorite band, so I'm holding out, til release day where I'll probably take off and sit around listening to it ALL DAY. Yes, I dork out for SY.

well, I will rationalize this argument to myself by saying, I spent 35 bucks on the last time I saw them, and the sound was bad and I could barely hear the vocals on Teenage Riot, I'm entitled to the album

I'll still buy it, and go see them live for the 8000th time.

If you download and listne to an album before it comes out, then there will be absolutely no excitement to buy it when it actually comes out. It's kind of like debating whether or not to buy that classic rock album that you like but you've heard a thousand times on the radio.

not necessarily true... at least for me. if i love an album, i will buy it. like the built to spill album- i'm so obsessed with that album... i had it but i want the cover artwork and so i bought it.

i've just learned my lesson from wasting too much money on buying cd's because i "heard" they were good. not to mention i have ocd when i go to amoeba... and now i can d/l it and check it out and if i like it, i'll buy it because god forbid if something should ever happen to all my music on my hd or i-pod....

enough of all this ethical talk.
i'm currently almost done with my first spin of this record, and i dig it. it's got kind of a gentle pavement-wowee zowee feel at moments (while sounding very, very little like that album) vibe to it that i like a lot. as far as first spins go, this is a good first spin.
anybody else digging this yet?

i am diggin on it very hard.

do you believe in rapture
what a waste
rats
reena
incinerate

so many good songs. i love the vibe of this sound...it reminds me a lot of certain tracks on Murray Street. I love the more modern SY sound.

Murray St. just about killed Sonic Youth for me forever. If they spent more then 1 day cutting that album then they wasted alot of time. Seemed completely mailed in and uninspired to me. I didn't hear the last one and if this is their new sound, I'll pass.

don't take me too seriously on that. i haven't given murray street too many serious spins and i wouldn't be surprised if people said that was way off. i'm no SY connoisseur. this album is definitely more worked on than Murray St. There are more tight short songs that have great melodies and even some decent "hooks" although I don't know if I'm using that term right. It's less sprawling than Murray Street.

Murray St. actually rekindled my like for this band, and could quite possibly be one of their most accessible records. Accessibility doesn't equate to greatness, but I've not once heard of the material turning folks away... permanently. They put out quite a fair amount of shlock, so I can understand you losing them, but this record I've found to be an exception. I'm surprised, that's all. Not nearly as surprised as I was the disdain for Uncle Tupelo on the board. As for the new SY material, I probably won't hear it for a year or two - just listened to Sonic Nurse for the first time last month.

anybody still listening? it just keeps growing on me. "do you believe in rapture" is one of my songs of the year right now.

I'll probably still buy it, but I really hate the direction this band is taking. I haven't listened to it yet, but I've heard it's even LESS noisy/rocking than the last two. They're good at consistently putting out boring records that I'll still listen to. I keep hoping for a return to the Bad Moon Rising era, but I can see that they're going to keep putting out more watered down versions of Murray Street until they finally dissolve.

Now that I think about it, if they would ever try to stray from their sound, they could put out a pretty good and interesting album along the lines of the Liars' newest.

now that would be sick.

i guess you hate "do you believe in rapture"

i'm perfecly happy with that being the direction they take.

I don't think Sonic Youth is ever going to go back to sounding like a no wave band. I love the early stuff, but I also love Murray Street. Sonic Nurse. not so much, but so far, I think the new one is better than that. It's one of their most tradional rock albums, but it's still uniquely them. A few of the Kim and Lee songs are a little meh, but they're still better than that Mariah Carey song from the last one.

At any rate, their recent direction is light years better than the two albums that preceded Murray Street. I'll never understand how that album could kill Sonic Youth for anybody, especially considering that by then they had already released 3 albums that were undeniably worse (Experimental Jet Set, A Thousand Leaves, and NYG Ghosts & Flowers).

Ghosts and Flowers is one of my three or four favorites, and I like A Thousand Leaves a lot too. EJS isn't bad but it's definitely in the lower half of their albums.

this album continues to grow on me, now entering daily spins.

how's this treating people? comfortably sitting at number 5 for me. haven't spun it in a few days, so i'm going to get on that in abit.

#1

noice

ok, so it's good, but i kind of get tired of the second half.

The first 5 (or maybe even 7 tracks) rip pretty hard and I enjoy the shit out of them.

1. Reena
2. Incinerate
3. Do You Believe In Rapture?
4. Sleepin Around
5. What A Waste

is an incredible opening sequence...it just doesn't let up. I dig on Rats, but by the time I get to the fourth minute of Turquoise Boy I've kind of had enough...and there's still two to go...

I need to give the second half some more serious listening as it will require growing if I'm to appreciate it. Tracks 1-5 immediately take hold and are all so money.