Sonic Youth’s 2000 LP “NYC Ghosts and Flowers” marked a transitional stage in the band’s history. Personally, I enjoy A Thousand Leaves– their previous record- but that one already was showing some cracks in the concrete. Before the recording of this one, the band had a significant chunk of their gear stolen, and over the years, they gradually got some (but not all) of it back. The notorious Pitchfork Media gave NYC a brutal 0/10 rating, which ended up saying more about the journalistic integrity of the site than of the album. NYC also marked the beginning of producer/musician/soundwizard Jim O’Rourke’s involvement with the band, both in the recording/engineering and as the fifth member, for a time. The following two records he did with them (Murray Street and Sonic Nurse) are also incredibly solid. It is undoubtedly a different SY album, but one that reveals its quality with repeated listens; it has a spacey, strange, and poetic vibe- especially with the spoken word “Small Flowers Crack Concrete” and title track. Did we go back in time to the Beatnik era? Perhaps. The album cover does have a William S. Burroughs painting, after all. Their previous album also paid tribute to Allen Ginsberg. “Nevermind (What Was It Anyway)” and “Renegade Princess” are the only tracks that call their previous work to mind. I love that the final ‘song’ is “Lightnin’,” a free jazz-y/experimental/electronic and non-inviting piece with minimalist lyrics. Even in their final decade as a band, SY continued to challenge and release uncompromising and fascinating music.