NYC Ghosts & Flowers

For those among you who hate melodies, despise choruses and balk at the very thought of a hook, there's always been Sonic Youth.

Late last year they released an album of interpretations of avant-garde 'classics' including works by Yoko Ono and John Cage. It was, for the most part, unlistenable and seen by even die-hard fans as a step too far for the band who make The Fall sound like Herman's Hermits.

With its more manageable song structures, near conventional time signatures and bright production this one should bring a few doubters back into the fold. They haven't sold out, mind, and the opener 'Free City Rhymes' kicks off with the sound of someone gargling TCP over a chiming dual guitar interplay and a typically leaden rhythm. 'Renegade Princess' goes one step further by employing a bona fide punkish riff and a half-recognisable drum line, but just in case you were getting too comfortable it inevitably collapses in a hail of distortion.

With its spoken beat poetry 'Small Flowers Crack Concrete' has a certain charm but 'StreamXsonic Subway' on the other hand comes across like a nightmarish computer game soundtrack and is mercifully short in duration.

The title track wallows in the kind of tuneless arty pretentious indulgence that makes you want to reach for your Burt Bacharach boxed set. As for the lyrics - "Can you please pass me a jug of winter light/fold me in an ocean's whim in sweet corrosive fire light in a city made of tin you." Nuff said!

Shouldn't be troubling the Lite FM playlist, I imagine.