When discussing the route that Thurston Moore has travelled in his solo career, first and foremost you’ve got to discard the initial urge to assume that his solo albums are just dumping grounds for lesser songs and those that would be out of place on a proper Sonic Youth album. At least that’s what I’ve had to do. It’s a common thing for listeners to do but it generally leads to undervaluing the very thing we’ve come to expect from the artist. Take Psychic Hearts for example, the first of Moore’s solo albums that I came across. My initial reaction was a rejection--almost more a feeling of indifference--of the album on Sonic Youth terms, because, to be honest, that was my measuring stick: does it sound like what I think it should sound like? That was completely unfair to Moore, and an unjustifiable conclusion to jump to in hindsight. And so given my less than admirable introduction to Moore’s solo work, I never made that mistake again. And so I came to his later solo releases, a wiser(debatable) listener/fan. Like his 2007 release Trees Outside The Academy, Moore’s latest release carefully constructs concise pop songs out of his disparate influences and the idiosyncratic tendencies of his full-time band. Demolished Thoughts may very well be Moore’s most fully realized album to date, though to be fair there have only been—in my mind, although I’ll be corrected on this—three official Moore solo albums in all, not counting the collaborations and experimental albums he’s released, which are many. But I think that in examining all the ambition and creative manicism on display across his solo work and the obvious influence he has on SY that it’s fair to judge Moore as I would someone with a longer body of solo releases. Again, I’m really talking about his song-oriented albums here. And for all the talk of this being Moore’s “folk” album, he subtly sidesteps the obvious pitfalls that would generally accompany such a drastic change of pace. Thankfully, Moore has not retreated into the woods and grown a Will Oldham beard—no offense to Will Oldham. The same sharp vision and concerted attention to detail that was so evident on his previous releases is still intact and as strong as ever. Songs like “Benediction” and “Space” show that Moore can use whatever instruments are at his disposal, be they acoustic or not, to show that time and age have not softened his attitude. And when Moore throws everything into the mix as he does on “Circulation”, it’s with the practiced ability of someone who’s been doing this very well for a long time. And like the best singers, Moore can use the peaceful, calming feeling commonly associated with “acoustic/folk” music to show that, even though you’re playing an acoustic guitar, you can be as pissed off as you like, running from death, and obsessed as any guy with an electric guitar can be.
Tracklisting:
01. Benediction (listen to the mp3 below)
02. Illuminine
03. Circulation
04. Blood Never Lies
05. Orchard Street
06. In Silver Rain With A Paper Key
07. Mina Loy
08. Space
09. January
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