Thurston Moore -‘Demolished Thoughts.’ (Matador)
So; another Sonic Youth-related album, a mere couple of months after the Youth’s soundtrack album Simon Werner A Disparu. Casual Youth fans may query whether this album is an improvisation-type thing or a more conventional album. People seem to get thrown by Thurston and co’s unconventionality. But it’s why I have loved them for more than twenty years.
See the impressive thing about this album – or one of them, anyway – is how Moore manages to take the singer-songwriter template and somehow transform it, puttylike, in his own hands. The result is that a) the genre does not feel tired and b) even minus the feedback, it is distinctively Thurston Moore.
Whilst there were certainly great moments on his last solo album, Trees Outside The Academy, this album is more focused and serves as a reminder to fans new and old why Moore is the master. A track like ‘Circulation’ is a key example; beautifully arranged, melodic and yet it is easy to see how as part of Sonic Youth’s catalogue the electric guitars would lick in. Meanwhile, on ”Orchard Street’ it is as if feedback has been scored for Orchestra…
Porudced by Beck, this album fits in nicely alongside recenet albums by both J macis and Kurt Vile (Us fans will get the chance to see the latter and Moore touring together this summer). Not because they are leftfield singer-songwriters (not labels you’d apply to Moore or Mascis!), but because they are albums that show there is new ground to be covered in this genre.
A welcome addition to moore’s already very impressive catalogue.
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Demolished Thoughts is released on Matador on May 23.