shake." Mojo stated that "in the end, it's surprisingly worth it for the few great, strange tracks." In Spin, Douglas Wolk hailed it as Sonic Youth's "artiest, most texturally spectacular album" yet, writing that it "fashions a link between the free-jazz of the New York Art Quartet and the psychotic spasms of 1978's no wave grail, No New York." In NMEs opinion, the album "burns with such a sense of direction and focus" that revealed the group to still be "a vital creative force" in music. According to Robert Christgau, NYC Ghosts & Flowers proved to be Sonic Youth's "dud by acclamation" among critics; he himself had given it a positive review in The Village Voice but later said the record's "meanderings", which had "captivated me in their ambiently environmental way, never fully reconnected" on later listens. Select wrote that "the songs suffer from a lazy approach and the relentless repetition of unengaging chord patterns." Billboard believed the record "either encapsulates Sonic Youth's most endearing or annoying qualities, depending on how one feels about the band and the spoken-word poetics from Kim Gordon." Brent DiCrescenzo's review for Pitchfork was far more critical and assigned the album a score of 0.0 out of 10, with the critic panning it as "an unfathomable album which will be heard in the squash courts and open mic nights of deepest Hell." Commenting on the album's avant-garde roots, he said, "These are not new ideas. These are ideas that were arrogant and unlistenable upon birth thirty years ago." DiCrescenzo later reevaluated his opinion of the album and, in 2013, remarked on the higher esteem with which he now held it: "I now love the record. It's unlike anything else; eerie and beautiful. [...] No, the lesson here is: beware the opinions of a kid right out of college." He also described Pitchforks decimal scale as "knowingly silly" and "arbitrary". Track listing Note: For the vinyl version, "Renegade Princess" moved to track 6, and "Side2Side" & "StreamXSonik Subway" were being reversed from the normal tracklist. Charts Personnel Sonic Youth Thurston Moore – vocals, guitars, production Kim Gordon – vocals, bass, guitars, sleeve illustration (Girl Drawing, 2000), production Lee Ranaldo – vocals, guitars, production, sleeve photography (1998) Steve Shelley – drums, percussion, production Additional personnel Jim O'Rourke – bass, electronics ("Side2Side"), production, additional recording, additional mixing William Winant – percussion ("Side2Side") Rafael Toral – Spacestatic guitar ("Renegade