nyc ghosts & flowers (2012)

nyc ghosts & flowers, boasting more kick than 1998's lazy A Thousand Leaves, proves the 19-year-old band Sonic Youth is still capable of energetic and exciting work — at least for the album's first 20 minutes. Unfortunately, they then venture into ill-advised spoken-word musings (''the narcs beat the bearded oracles, replacing tantric love with complete violence'') and too-familiar dissonant droning, making this unusually brief 42-minute disc too long by half. B