Thurston Moore
Trees Outside The Academy

Listening to a solo album by a leader of any well-regarded band is always an exhilarating experience. And when it’s the driving force and mind behind an essential group like Sonic Youth, well, even more so.

This "Trees Outside The Academy" (his second solo album) confronts us with a question: how much of Thurston Moore is there in the albums of the mythical sonic youth? For sure, there is plenty; but in some aspects, it also feels like listening to something different. Because if it’s true that the structure of the pieces is more or less the same, what changes significantly is the sound and instrumentation: indeed, Thurston often accompanies himself with the talented violinist Samara Lubelski and this time decides to unplug, opting for a less distorted and more acoustic sound. Also noteworthy is the contribution on several tracks by Mascis from Dinosaur Jr. on guitar, who also hosts him in his recording studios.

This feeling is immediate with the opening track "Frozen Gtr", certainly one of the best episodes of the album, and continues with atmospheric and pleasant pieces up to the fifth track. The album flows delightfully while maintaining its compositional coherence and shows us a mature Moore in an almost singer-songwriter version, I would say.

In the central part of the album, however, something changes. "American Coffie" inevitably takes us back to the golden years: those straddling the '80s and the '90s: a "sonic" reverb indeed envelops us at the start, leading to a dissonant piano reminiscent (quite a bit) of the one in "Providence" included in the monumental "Daydream Nation". The same goes for the following "Wonderful Witches + Language Meanies" where the trusted Shelley on drums steals the show: it might seem like a track from "Goo", less noisy and updated to our times. Also noteworthy are the evocative "Never Light" and the title track that seems to have come out of the sessions of "Sonic Nurse" or "Rather Ripped": six minutes of sustained guitars and rhythm changes enviable by many newcomers to rock.

The album concludes in a bizarre manner with a monologue found at his mother's house and dating back to when the musician was 13 years old.

After roughly 25 years of honorable career behind him and having gifted us with unforgettable pages with the other "Sonic", Moore has nothing more to prove; he certainly continues to produce excellent music: and that’s perfectly fine with us.