Naked City

Critic Score
Based on 3 reviews
1990 Ratings: #31 / 370
User Score
Based on 288 ratings
1990 Rank: #18
Liked by 56 people
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UltimateLifeFrm
80

John Zorn is a prolific name I've been hearing about for quite some time, mainly because of how fascinating it is to see how he approaches improvisation & compositions.

I mean, how does one describe an album like Naked City? An eccentric yet wildly ambitious piece of work that fuses avant-garde jazz with grindcore, no wave & avant-garde metal? Some of these are movie theme covers too? Holy shit, I already love this and I haven't even heard it yet!!!

In all seriousness though, this ... read more

Toasterqueen12
79

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A comment left in 2011: "Goregrind Jazz Lol"

This is a good album, that's without question. It's just a LOOOOONG album. It doesn't look long at first but when you get to the fifth 12 second track of someone screaming in a row you feel all of time compressing you. Slowly turning your ears to mush.

So it's a good thing this album has a lot of good ass songs ... read more

Gustavstone07
79

Without a doubt one of the wildest amalgamations of genres I've ever come across

Naked City is the first studio album by Naked City, an American avant-garde music group led by composer John Zorn. The band is well known for their combination of genres that are just so simply wild some might call them sacrilegious, such as what they did with this album where most of the album is a bizarre combination of experimental jazz and grindcore. Naked City's 26 songs are mostly made up of original ... read more

Usermaatre
78

A solid debut, but I'm left wanting more, which is not a great sign for a 50 minute album. It just feels inconsistent. It genre hops like crazy, and each of those experiments goes off in interesting directions, but they tend to struggle to mesh together. In addition about a quarter of the songs are covers and among these weird genre mashups they stand out like a paint splatter on the Mona Lisa just being being normal jazz. It's an album who's ideas would get realized on better projects, many of ... read more

lukacia78
75

Whoever said this was ed edd n eddy grindcore you were absolutely right. A very weirdly pleasant balance of manic sax shrieking and genuinely chill moments. Some minor flaws but I really like this.
Highlights: The Sicilian Clan, Saigon Pickup and Punk China Doll

homuli
66

John Zorn's "Naked City" is a very vibrant album — unapologetically embracing its sound to a degree I'm sure no one was expecting. Just when you thought you've figured out the albums mixture of grindcore and avant-garde jazz, they pull out the James Bond theme on you. It's really unpredictable, which makes first listens really captivating, but upon revisits I've come to realize that this album sacrifices a lot of great moments to upkeep its erratic nature. It's sort of the point ... read more

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Track List

1Batman
2:03
91
2The Sicilian Clan
3:33
88
3You Will Be Shot
1:31
88
4Latin Quarter
4:11
90
5A Shot in the Dark
3:13
91
6Reanimator
1:43
84
7Snagglepuss
2:20
92
8I Want to Live
2:12
87
9Lonely Woman
2:45
90
10Igneous Ejaculation
0:23
79
11Blood Duster
0:16
76
12Hammerhead
0:11
71
13Demon Sanctuary
0:41
79
14Obeah Man
0:20
72
15Ujaku
0:30
80
16Fuck the Facts
0:14
70
17Speedball
0:43
85
18Chinatown
4:28
89
19Punk China Doll
3:05
90
20N.Y. Flat Top Box
0:45
77
21Saigon Pickup
4:50
86
22The James Bond Theme
3:06
92
23Den of Sins
1:14
85
24Contempt
2:53
91
25Graveyard Shift
3:32
86
26Inside Straight
4:17
91
Total Length: 54 minutes
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Added on: April 14, 2013