NYC Ghosts & Flowers is the eleventh studio album by American rock band Sonic Youth, released on May 16, 2000 by DGC Records. The highly experimental album is considered to be a reaction to the theft of the band's instruments in July 1999, when several irreplaceable guitars and effects pedals were stolen. NYC Ghosts & Flowers was the first album since Bad Moon Rising in which the band used prepared guitar. Background As a result of the theft, the members of Sonic Youth relied upon "old guitars in their studio, unearthing instruments they hadn't used in years" which "along with equipment purchased to fulfill the remaining [...] dates [of the tour], would serve as the foundation for six new songs written over the next month", in addition to "Free City Rhymes" and "Renegade Princess", which were written prior to the tour. The band members later acknowledged that "the gear theft was somewhat of a blessing, if [also] a rather unwelcome and unpleasant one, in that it truly forced them to 'start over' and approach creating music with brand new boundaries". Content On this album, the influence of beat poetry on the band was strongly evident: The lyrics to most songs resembled the beat style; Lenny Bruce and D. A. Levy were name-checked; and the cover art was based on a painting by William S. Burroughs. Release NYC Ghosts & Flowers was released on May 16, 2000 by record label DGC. A music video was released for the track "Nevermind (What Was It Anyway)". According to the band's official website, it was a proposed single that "never actually found its way into stores." Critical reception NYC Ghosts & Flowers received an approval rating of 66 out of 100 on review aggregator website Metacritic, signifying "generally favorable reviews". In a positive review for the Chicago Tribune, Greg Kot said "though Sonic Youth flirted with alternative-rock songcraft in the early '90s, these noise-rock renegades are once again happily viewing their guitars as hunks of wood, wire and infinite possibility." He went on to write, "No rock band makes the avant-garde sound quite this tactile and sensual." Salon.com also gave the album a positive review and stated, "Even while there isn't a single song here that holds together from beginning to end, even as the music makes only itself felt in halting jigsaw fashion... the album has a gloomy, unaccommodating tenacity that's hard to