Thurston Moore
trees outside the academy
(hear it)

It's good. It's acoustic Sonic Youth without any Kim Gordon or Lee Renaldo. Samara Lubelski plays violin, and there's a few J. Mascis lead guitar bits for kicks, but for the most part you have Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley knocking out rock music. Moore layers voice, guitar, and bass. I always imagined or read that most of the Sonic Youth stuff is based on group improvs being recorded and reperformed into structures. Here, without that group creative process, Thurston seems more compositionally focused. The music seems destined to arrive at certain big transitions, and long minimalist sections seem preordained, in a way that rarely occurs on classic Sonic Youth albums, where the transitions usually feel like splices. It makes me wonder if SY's recent "Rather Ripped" wasn't composed similarly.

The lyrics still have that Sonic Youth-y feel, where real emotions seem to be covered up by too much intellect and social awareness.

bb, 8 Mar 08