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In my opinion, RATHER RIPPED is SY's best album since Dirty although Washing Machine makes a very good argument because:
a. they got back to what they're good at before they started the "thousand leaves" 7 minute epics. SY were always about energetic alive guitar, straight-to-the-point, great hooks and riffs, melody and disonance. After Washing Machine, you saw SY overextend songs that easily could've been cut in half and possibly would've been better.
b. range in song style. almost all the songs are very different but still sound within a system and associated with eachother. I think this is what made Dirty an incredible record...alot of the songs were very different from eachother but had a feeling of being in a system. Washing Machine was one of them too. I think because of the diversity in song styles in those areas, it made albums like A Thousand Leaves and Murray Street very predictable and at times boring (i wouldn't call A Thousand Leaves boring, but definitely Murray Street).
c. I've seen an reemergence of Sonic popularity that I haven't seen since Washing Machine. Younger kids still dig SY and they're still growing newer and younger fanbase, something I didn't see during the NYG&F-Sonic Nurse era.
But that's just my opinion, which probably is predicated on which sonic era I grew most attached to.
I would find it hard to believe any new fans made during the NYG&F-Sonic Nurse era would choose Rather Ripped over what they naturally were first introduced to, so that's totally understandable why there is always going to be those who strongly favor a certain SY era over another SY era.
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